Louis Vuitton said yesterday it was dropping plans for a massive flagship store in central Tokyo as the global economic crisis dampens the market for luxury goods.
The French luxury brand had planned a 12-floor, 12,000m² store off a major street in Tokyo’s glitzy Ginza district that would rival its main shop in Paris in size.
Louis Vuitton counts on Japan as its most lucrative market with some estimates saying that a third of young Japanese women own handbags or other apparel from the retailer.
PHOTO: EPA
A spokeswoman for the local unit, LVJ Group KK, confirmed that an agreement on building the store was off.
Hulic Co, a Japanese real estate firm constructing the building, said it had been set to open in 2010 with Louis Vuitton selling goods throughout almost the entire complex.
“We understand the company canceled the project due to its own conditions,” said a Hulic spokesman. “We will construct the building as scheduled, inviting other tenant candidates.”
Elsewhere spokesman said the developer was not too concerned about filling the building space thanks to the location but declined to comment whether the company would seek compensation from the luxury handbag company.
French parent LVMH Moet Hennessy-Louis Vuitton said its Japanese sales fell 7 percent on the year in the nine months ended Sept. 30. The company last week announced it would cut prices in Japan.
Japan’s Nomura Equity Research recently estimated that global sales of luxury brands would sink by 4 percent next year and another 3 percent in 2010.
Elsewhere, employers and union leaders in Italy’s fashion sector on Monday called for an “urgent” meeting with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to discuss ways to limit the impact of the world financial crisis.
They called for the meeting in a joint letter to Berlusconi and his finance, labor and economic development ministers, the textile and fashion federation Sistema Moda Italia said in a statement.
Signatories include associations representing the textile, shoe, leather and eyeglass industries — representing tens of thousands of companies — as well as the main unions in the fashion sector.
The letter asks for “an urgent meeting to enable us to face together the effects of the current heavy global, financial, economic and social crisis on the sector’s businesses.”
ALL-IN-ONE: A company in Tainan and another in New Taipei City offer tours to China during which Taiwanese can apply for a Chinese ID card, the source said The National Immigration Agency and national security authorities have identified at least five companies that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese identification cards while traveling in China, a source said yesterday. The issue has garnered attention in the past few months after YouTuber “Pa Chiung” (八炯) said that there are companies in Taiwan that help Taiwanese apply for Chinese documents. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) last week said that three to five public relations firms in southern and northern Taiwan have allegedly assisted Taiwanese in applying for Chinese ID cards and were under investigation for potential contraventions of the Act Governing
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his
‘SOVEREIGN AI’: As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for having computing power of 103 petaflops. The governments wants to achieve 1,200 by 2029 The government would intensify efforts to bolster its “Sovereign Artificial Intelligence [AI]” program by setting a goal of elevating the nation’s collective computing power in the public and private sectors to 1,200 peta floating points per second (petaflops) by 2029, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The goal was set to fulfill President William Lai’s (賴清德) vision of turning Taiwan into an “AI island.” Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capabilities to produce AI using its own infrastructure, data, workforce and business networks. One petaflop allows 1 trillion calculations per second. As of Nov. 19 last year, Taiwan was globally ranked No. 11 for
STAY WARM: Sixty-three nontraumatic incidents of OHCA were reported on Feb. 1, the most for a single day this year, the National Fire Agency said A total of 415 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occurred this month as of Saturday, data from the National Fire Agency showed as doctors advised people to stay warm amid cold weather, particularly people with cardiovascular disease. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a low temperature warning nationwide except for Penghu County, anticipating sustained lows of 10°C or a dip to below 6°C in Nantou, Yilan, Hualien and Taitung counties, as well as areas north of Yunlin County. The coldest temperature recorded in flat areas of Taiwan proper yesterday morning was 6.4°C in New Taipei City’s Shiding District (石碇). Sixty-three nontraumatic OHCA
RSS