Uniqlo has fashion at the source in Bangladesh
In a busy street in Dhaka buyers looking for refusing to export and trademark infringement tender, a staircase leads to an anomaly in a country for the production of international clothing brands known - Haute Couture World Street.
Uniqlo, owned by Fast Retailing Co of Japan <9983.T> on Friday opened two stores in Bangladesh, a care center for low-cost choice for many international retailers, but a country where until now they have sold their clothes.
On the map below the lighted shop, waited a crowd of about 150 people patiently rented to customers on the larger of the two Dhaka Uniqlo stores.
"Young Dhaka hope Uniqlo starts to follow a trend and other brands," said a beaming Dipjon Mitra, a professor at the university who had been waiting since 7:30 to check the bin Laden.
Japanese trader is established in a tie-up with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, on a retail 70000000000 $ from global supply chains, where about 30 million people make up the disk untouched enter middle income countries.
In April, more than 1,100 workers died in the garment industry in the collapse of an eight-story building in Bangladesh, pressure on the international fashion brands to improve worker safety and livelihoods.
FOCUS middle class
At 1,000 square feet (90 square meters), the store is far from Dhaka Stocks mostly large companies and also UNIQLO Men's Clothing - Women in Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim country, always prefer to wear traditional clothing.
A group of college students who have never heard the curious checking the on the other side of the road earlier this week, as the final preparations were made for the opening, had of the brand.
"The store is on the outside. Can I shop here for Eid, but not always," Jamshed said Robin, 25, a student of political science, look at the catalog price.
Eid al-Fitr is a religious festival and marks an important key trading period for Muslims.
A typical pair of skinny jeans here costs 990 taka ($ 12.73) and a short-sleeved shirt costs 890 taka ($ 11.44) before tax of 5 percent. This means that they, rather than the masses that make up the ranks of the workers in textile factories and earn a minimum monthly salary of $ 38 are provided for small but growing middle class.
Uniqlo on their website says that his T-shirts cost 20-30 percent more than sold on the local market, and says he is banking that customers pay a little more for higher quality.
"We will not sell Uniqlo products that we sell Grameen Uniqlo, which is more geared towards the local market, for 200-1000 yen ($ 2 - $ 10)," said Naoto Miyazawa, a spokesman for Fast Retailing in Tokyo .
SECURITY PACT
Fast Retailing has not subscribed to a comprehensive security system Pact factories in Bangladesh, founded after the disaster in April Rana Plaza complex in an industrial suburb north of Dhaka, preferring to boot own controls.
Miyazawa said the company had not yet decided because the details are not yet clear if the pact signed.
Uniqlo invested $ 4.6 million in Bangladesh. The company described the initiative as a micro-lender Grameen "social enterprise project" on its website and plans to reinvest the profits in order to reduce poverty in rural place.
"We want to offer innovative designs and fashion for clients of the middle class here and have plans for new stores in the cities to open to create more jobs," said Yukihiro Nitta, CEO of the joint venture.
Friday, Nitta said he was nervous about how the brand is to make to Bangladesh as the first, were able to test the waters.
Uniqlo instead of 99 percent of Grameen Uniqlo Ltd and Grameen Healthcare Trust hold do the rest.
Small second output of the company is in a middle class suburb of Dhaka. Outside Sales Manager Omar Iqbal 28-year-old was eager to check out the bright memory.
"It will be nice to wear a global brand to work," he said. "Are their clothes Uniqlo the Adidas logo on them like that?"