Galeries Lafayette announced Thursday that it wants to increase its presence in China with ten stores “by 2025” and developing online sales, thanks to the creation of a joint subsidiary with the local real estate group Hopson Group. The brand intends to “develop a strategic association” with Hopson Group, “one of the main listed real estate companies in the southeast of the country”, a press release specifies, thanks to this joint venture in which each of the partners has a 50% stake.
This alliance should enter into force in the “coming weeks”, specifies the tricolor group, which specifies that it already has a shopping center in Beijing and another in Shanghai, each of them with more than 25,000 m2. It should allow “accelerating the pace of store openings to ten by 2025” and strengthening the “digital presence” of Galeries Lafayette. This year “three new addresses” will open in the cities of Shenzhen, Chongqing and Macao, which will have between 3,000 and 5,000 m2 according to the press release.
Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta…
Galeries Lafayette “will rely on the Hopson group’s real estate portfolio, on its know-how in the operation of high-quality shopping centers and urban complexes,” they indicate. “Ten years after our first establishment in Beijing, and as the country gradually reopens its borders to the world after three difficult years, we are happy to embark on a new stage of our development in China,” says Nicolas Houzé, General Manager of Galleries. Lafayette and BHV Marais, cited by the press release.
Hopson will notably build a “high-end” online sales platform, said Lucas Loh, president of Hopson Commercial Group. Galeries Lafayette today has seven stores outside France: in Luxembourg, Berlin, Dubai, Doha, Jakarta, Beijing and Shanghai, and two “will open in 2024 in India, in Mumbai and New Delhi,” a spokeswoman said.
Source: BFM TV
