Uniqlo’s president Tadashi Yanai wants to make durable clothing, not fast fashion

LONDON – As president of Uniqlo, Tadashi Yanai, the son of a tailor, has grown the clothing-retail brand to be one of the biggest in the world. He even set a revenue target of five trillion yen in sales per year by the year 2020 for his company, Fast Retailing, which counts Uniqlo, Theory, Helmut Lang, and J Brand as some of its fashion labels.

Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore had a chat with Yanai on using innovative technology to create products, his personal vision for growth in the next five years and the dire need to look for his successor. You mentioned technology a lot, how do you define Uniqlo – as a digital high-tech company or still as a clothing company?

I know some of these tech giants are using Singapore as a headquarters. But you know, unlike tech giants Facebook and Google, we are in need of real stores, and we do have our regional headquarters located in Singapore. I think there’s a Harvard graduate who's running a very significant internet business, and his company is called Grab. Yeah, I'm sure that more and more people will emulate him and there will be more people like him or her emerging in the industry.

Let me tell you a story; when I first opened the store, my sentiment was, oh I have discovered a gold mine. So many customers were rushing to enter our store, and we had to limit the number of people coming in. Customers were coming from the Yamaguchi prefecture, which is a rather rural part of Japan. As you know, Hiroshima was the first city where an atomic bomb was dropped.

We want to offer clothing that could be wearable for a long period of time, that is durable. Our partnership with Toray will allow us to develop materials that are innovative and we both share a common thread when it comes to management principles. We believe in the long-term research that will benefit the customers.You mentioned in interviews that you don’t mind the leader to be female?

Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Sri Lanka president abandons re-election bidSri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to stand for re-election in November polls as the politically influential Rajapakse ...
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Heads up: These are the clothes that you will be wearing in 2020 and beyond\n\nFrom joyful maximalism to a cool Parisian insouciance, our top picks from the Spring/Summer 2020 collections will start you on the right foot in the new decade. The apparel and footwear industries together account for more than 8 percent of global climate impact, greater than all international airline flights and maritime shipping trips combined.
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Shami, Jadeja bowl India to comfortable win over South AfricaFast bowler Mohammed Shami picked up a five-wicket haul while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja took four in South Africa's second innings to bowl ...
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

Shami, Jadeja bowl India to 203-run win over South AfricaFast bowler Mohammed Shami picked up a five-wicket haul while left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja took four in South Africa's second innings to hand ...
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »

‘Jim’ the chatbot helps Singapore bank hire for Its wealth businessSingapore’s largest bank DBS Group is getting help from a chatbot named Jim in its drive to select good candidates for its fast-growing business advising customers on managing their wealth.
Source: YahooSG - 🏆 3. / 71 Read more »

Cricket - Shami shows class on final day once againNEW DELHI: Fast bowlers usually play second fiddle to their slow-bowling counterparts on the final day of tests on the sub-continent but Mohammed ...
Source: ChannelNewsAsia - 🏆 6. / 66 Read more »