Uniqlo founder Tadashi Yanai’s retirement plan has been put on hold again.
On November 30, Fast Retailing Group, the parent company of Uniqlo, recently announced that Yanai Masaru, Hanbayashi Hiroshi, Hattori Noda, Niiza Masaaki, Mingwa Koji, Ohno Naotake, Oka Ken, Yanai Kazumi and All nine directors of Yanai Yasuji were elected in the new round of voting and will continue to serve as directors.
Masa Yanai is 71 years old this year. This re-election means that his plan to retire at the age of 70 has once again been shelved.
In fact, Yanai Masaru has been thinking of retiring since he was 65 years old, but his retirement time has been repeatedly postponed. Some industry insiders pointed out that what troubles Yanai Masaru is the lack of talent and the loss of talent. He is very picky about candidates for the new generation of operators.
Although Tadashi Yanai’s retirement plan has been put on hold again, he has begun to intentionally search for a successor, admitting that his most important job at the moment is to cultivate the next generation of leaders, and revealed that his ideal successor is a woman.
As a fashion fast-moving consumer brand positioned as a technology company, Uniqlo is deeply loved by young people in China.
In the fiscal year ending in August 2019, what Uniqlo calls Greater China (including Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) revenue was 502.5 billion yen ($4.75 billion), accounting for about 20% of total revenue, but still lower than Japan’s 872.9 billion yen.
However, the Chinese market is expanding rapidly. In the three years to August 2019, Greater China’s compound annual growth rate was 15%, far exceeding Japan’s 3%.
The dual impact of e-commerce and the epidemic has placed a serious burden on Uniqlo’s global offline layout. However, recently the company has once again proposed to open 100 new stores in the Chinese market every year. plan.
Uniqlo opened 8 new stores in June, followed by 19 new stores in August. As of August, the number of UNIQLO stores in China reached more than 760.
In September, the Chinese market will once again welcome the opening of more than ten new stores, including Beijing Yanqing Wanda, Shanghai Nanxiang Impression City MEGA Store, Shanghai Senlan Garden City Store, and Guangzhou Huangpu Nangang Wanda Plaza Store and other major first- and second-tier cities.</p
