Opportunities afforded by the growing consumer markets of Asia play an important role in Marimekko’s internationalisation. Over the past three years, new markets have been opened up in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the Marimekko stores in Asia have doubled in number.
Marimekko is continuing its expansion in Asia. Retailer-owned Marimekko stores will be opened in the major Southeast Asian metropolises of Singapore and Bangkok in spring 2015. The intention is to open more stores in the next few years. The forthcoming store in Singapore will be in an excellent business location in the new Capitol Piazza mall. A Marimekko shop-in-shop was already opened in November 2014 at the famous Tangs department store, whose international peers include, for example, Bloomingdale’s of New York and London’s Selfridges. The Bangkok store will be opened in one of the city’s biggest and busiest shopping centres, Central World, which attracts as many as 150,000 customers a day.
“In our expansion in the international marketplace, we have focused first and foremost on regions with high growth potential. The Asia-Pacific region is our second-largest market area, and we already have a fairly strong foothold in East Asia. We are now aiming for two new markets in Southeast Asia as Marimekko stores are opened in Singapore and Bangkok in the spring,” says Mika Ihamuotila, President and CEO.
“Singapore is a modern metropolis and very attractive to us, as it is considered one of the region’s top shopping destinations for tourists. As an aviation gateway it also serves as an access point to many Asian countries, and the city receives an enormous number of travellers. The capital city of Thailand, Bangkok, is in an interesting stage of development from the retail viewpoint. A number of high-class malls have been opened in the city recently, and it is rising to be a noteworthy rival to Singapore and Hong Kong,” Ihamuotila continues.
Half of the new Marimekko stores opened in 2014 were in the Asia-Pacific region: two in Hong Kong, one in Chengdu in mainland China, two in Seoul in South Korea, and two in Japan. In Australia, Marimekko opened a company-owned store in Melbourne. Two further shop-in-shops were opened, one in New Zealand and another in Singapore.
Source: Marimekko
