Primo Japan Inc. will open our I-PRIMO Wuhan K11 Store on Saturday, December 12th inside Wuhan K11 Art Mall, a large commercial facility scheduled to open in December 2020. This will be our 14th store operating in mainland China, following our 13 existing stores: 5 in Shanghai, 2 in Hangzhou, 1 in Shenzhen, 2 in Beijing, 1 in Chengdu, 1 in Suzhou, and 1 in Chongqing.

◆Approaching a Latent Bridal Market

Located in the eastern part of Hubei Province, Wuhan is the provincial capital, and the only sub-provincial city in Central China. Known as one of China’s leading industrial cities, Wuhan has a population of 10.89 million people, with more than 90,000 marriages each year. In addition to a large urban population, more than 80 universities and other educational institutions are concentrated here. Because of this, 20 percent of Wuhan’s population is in their 20s, making the city an area with a large potential bridal market.  Our new store location will be in Wuhan K11 Art Mall, which opens in December 2020 and is the second of two new shopping malls opening in Wuhan. The facility’s HK2 block, where our store will be located, has a total area of 37,000 square meters housing more than 250 global cosmetics, apparel and fashion jewelry brands appealing to a young and highly discerning customer base in the 20-40 age bracket. The store’s convenient location, easily accessible from Wuhan Metro Line 1 (Liji North Road Station) and Line 2 (Zhongshan Park Station), means we can also expect to attract many customers and increase brand awareness for the I-PRIMO brand.

◆Mainland China Business Outlook: Continued Store Openings for Greater Market Penetration

Since opening our first store location in mainland China in Shanghai in July 2016, we have expanded our coverage area with stores in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Chengdu, Suzhou and Chongqing. The spread of COVID-19 infections since February 2020 has had a major impact on the retail industry in mainland China. However, sales have been strong since infection rates began leveling out in April and also due to resistance to strong regulations of economic activity. Our percentage of overseas sales as of the end of 2019 stood at 30%, and, in order to achieve our 40% sales percentage set forth in our medium-term management plan, we will continue to open stores in mainland China to raise brand awareness of our I-PRIMO brand and to further develop our business in mainland China.