Japan’s Fast Retailing, the owner of global clothing chain Uniqlo, said on Thursday it would open its first discount brand GU store in the United States this autumn.
The store will open in the SoHo neighbourhood of New York City in what will be the brand’s debut outside of the Asian market, Fast Retailing said in a statement.
The company has opened about 450 GU outlets since 2006, mostly in Japan. Fast Retailing is planning an aggressive growth strategy across North America, a market that has become increasingly important as sales in China suffer from ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns.
The name GU is a pun on the Japanese word jiyū which means free from high-cost clothing. Its signature product is a pair of jeans, which costs 990 yen (US$7.40).
The chain was founded in 1973 and has eight stores in Hong Kong.
- Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Jan Harvey, of Reuters, and Inside Retail.
