Primo Japan Inc. announces the opening on Saturday, November 13th of the I-PRIMO Shenzhen Qianhai UNIWALK Store, our second store location in Shenzhen, China at the large-scale commercial complex UNIWALK. This store will be our 18th store opening in Mainland China, as we continue to expand our business in the region with previous store openings in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu, Suzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan, Tianjin and Nanning.

◆UNIWALK: Shenzhen’s Second-largest commercial complex

Located in Guangdong province, the “Silicon Valley of China,” Shenzhen City is one of mainland China’s four major cities, together with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. With a population of approximately 13.37 million people living in an area covering 2,000 square kilometers, Shenzhen boasts a market size comparable to the Tokyo metropolitan area with its population of 13.78 million occupying approximately 2,200 square kilometers. In December 2018, we opened the Mixc Shenzhen Bay Store, followed by the Shenzhen Mixc pop-up store in July 2020, and sales performance across the area remains strong. 

Aiming for further growth, we are opening this new store at UNIWALK, a complex featuring a shopping mall, office buildings and luxury housing that has grown rapidly over the past two years since it first opened in 2017, rising to the number 2 spot in the market based on sales. The shopping mall houses 428 mostly international brand stores, including a number of jewelry brands, so we expect to attract customers shopping around for bridal jewelry. Easily accessible via the adjacent Bao’an Metro Station, we can also expect to increase awareness of the I-PRIMO brand further.

 

◆Mainland China Business Outlook: Continuing Store Openings for Further Market Penetration

Since opening our first store in Mainland China in July 2016 in Shanghai, we have expanded our coverage area with store locations in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu, Suzhou, Chongqing, Wuhan and Tianjin. Although the spread of COVID-19 infections since in February 2020 had a big impact on the retail industry in Mainland China, severe restrictions on economic activity during that period resulted in a dramatic rise in purchasing motivation once the spread of infections began to subside beginning around April 2020, meaning that sales in 2020 have also been strong. With a percentage of overseas sales exceeding 30% as at the end of 2020, Primo Japan will continue opening stores in Mainland China while working to achieve our target overseas sales percentage of 40% and further developing our business in the region.     

 

※１ Based on a 2020 survey by the People’s Republic of China National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)