Affordable luxury brand BA&SH has marked the second anniversary of its launch in Asia by revealing plans to quadruple its sales in the region within two years and introduce a new store concept. Last year the company opened seven stores in Mainland China, three in Hong Kong and two in Macau, taking its Greater China footprint to 20 points of sale.
“We are thrilled about Hong Kong hitting the podium already and convinced China has the potential to drive the brand’s growth in a near future,” says Isolde Andouard, BA&SH’s CEO for Apac.
“Asian market accounts for 6 per cent of our global sales as of today and we are targeting to reach 17 per cent by 2020. We forecast to multiply our turnover fourfold within the next two years,” she said.
Stores in Hong Kong and Mainland China achieved profitability after just three months of operation, allowing the brand to build a regional store pool contributing significantly to global results.
BA&SH unveiled a new store concept in the US last September, located in New York City’s Nolita neighbourhood, a store designed around themes of friendship and customer experience.
“We chose New York to test the water with this new concept as this retailtainment experience must be combined with a heavy digital approach and US is clearly ahead of time on this,” says the company’s global CEO Pierre Arnaud Grenade.
“As the US and Asia are our two strongest focuses for the time being, Hong Kong will definitely be the second city to inaugurate this model.”
Sustained investments from LVMH-sponsored L Catterton have been supporting BA&SH’s strong growth over the past years and a strong emphasis on Greater China was seen as critical to the brand’s globalisation.
Hong Kong stores, the first of which opened almost two years ago, now rank within BA&SH’s top five worldwide in turnover. Andouard says that proves the BA&SH concept is a great fit for Asia, with the Hong Kong stores recording average like-for-like sales growth of more than 40 per cent year on year. Some stores in Greater China doubled their sales year on year.
BA&SH has focused on opening boutiques in premium locations and already counts most of the city’s major retail property owners among their landlords – including Swire, Sun Hung Kai, Sands, Wharf, China Resources and Value Retail.
“We didn’t bet on such a warm welcome from the local operators, because BA&SH is quite a new concept to Asia,” says Laura Marquant, strategy & development director Apac. “Yet we see the market is becoming more mature and is looking for the freshness BA&SH is offering.”
E-commerce focus
Meanwhile, on the strength of the Greater China success, BA&SH has expanded its reach online through Alibaba, opening a flagship on Tmall last June, less than a year after the brand launched in Mainland China.
“As far as digital is concerned, New Retail and omnichannel are more than ever on the table, and the redesign of the brand’s Hong Kong website with new features and tools are the next steps to come,” says Andouard.