Following the initial success that it experienced with its first Concept Stores in Hong Kong and China, Giordano announced that it will accelerate the roll-out of Concept Stores, with a view to having a total of about 15 such stores in prime locations in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore before end-2006. 

“We differentiate a Giordano Concept Store from a regular Giordano store by the total experience it offers its customers.  We have to combine many different elements such as product, visual merchandising and interior design to create this new experience.  For instance, Concept Stores will feature exclusive designs and limited editions in their product offering.  They will also have more dramatic window displays and in-store presentations with greater emphasis on mix-and-match to inspire customers.  Our aim is to have the Concept Stores reflect and communicate the new “dress up casual” attitude of our updated collections,” remarked Melinda Wong, Group Creative Director.

“Consumers have become much more demanding in terms of choice, variety and individuality.  As such, we have been expanding the number of styles in each of our in-store delivery, and deliberately limiting the number of units per style so that as soon as we sell down on one item we’ll have a new item to replace it.  This is not to say that Giordano is turning itself to a fast fashion brand.  We are still focused on delivering quality casualwear at affordable prices to our customers.  What has changed is that we are now expanding and “dressing up” our casualwear offering to meet higher consumer expectations.  Our Concept Stores are aimed at helping us present our new collections in the best possible light and maximizing the impact.  They are an important part of our overall strategy to make Giordano more relevant to consumers” continued Ms Wong. 

“We launched our Concept Store strategy in selected pilot locations in China and Hong Kong in Spring 2006.  So far consumer response has been very encouraging, and we have been able to achieve close to 20% year-on-year same store sales growth in some locations” commented Mr Peter Lau, Chairman and Chief Executive of Giordano International Limited.  “In view of the success, we will quicken our pace to open or convert existing stores to Concept Stores and we plan to have about 15 of them in our key markets of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore by the end of the year.  Although Concept Stores will only make up about 1% of our stores globally, since they will all be located in high traffic and high visibility locations, we expect them to account for close to 10% of our sales, and we target them to achieve same store sales growth in the mid-teens.  Equally as important, they will serve to showcase our new “dress up casual” product direction and create a “halo effect” for Giordano to attract new customers and help drive better sales growth in our regular stores” concluded Mr Lau.  

Giordano International Limited is a leading international retailer of men’s, women’s and children’s apparel under the brand names “Giordano”, “Giordano Ladies”, “Giordano Junior” and “Bluestar”.  Established in 1981, Giordano International now operates 1,700 stores and counters in Greater China, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, India and the Middle East.