Foreign luxury brands desert Shanghai’s Bund as glamor fades
June 3, 2013 Leave a comment
Foreign luxury brands desert Shanghai’s Bund as glamor fades
Staff Reporter
2013-06-03
The Bund in Shanghai. China’s economy has reached a critical point where the country must find a new direction to maintain progress. (File photo/Xinhua)
The flagship store of Italian designer Giorgio Armani in Shanghai closed earlier this year, ending its decade-long operations on the Bund, the most visited tourist destination in the city, the Chinese-language Global Entrepreneur Magazine reports.
The Bund is home to 52 historic buildings of various Western, Eastern and fusion architectural styles. The closed Giorgio Armani store was located at the Bund No. 3, a 97-year-old building that once housed the British Mercantile Bank and was remodeled in 2004 into a high-end shopping center by American architect Michael Graves.Armani Group opened its first store in the Bund No. 3 building in 2003, following an increase in luxury product sales in China from 2004, attracting international brands to enter the Chinese market.
The Bund is situated in the former Shanghai International Settlement region that runs along the western bank of the city’s Huangpu river. Owing to its European legacy, it became the go-to place for luxury European brands, including French watchmaker-jeweler Cartier, Italian fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe and French jewellery house Boucheron, to open their flagship stores.
During the past decade, the Bund has been known as one of the world landmarks for luxury products, such as the Champs-Elysees in Paris and New York’s Fifth Avenue. However, the glamor of the Bund now seems to be fading, following the end of the eight-to-ten-year leases available on the historical buildings in the area, the Global Entrepreneur said.
Hugo Boss closed down its Bund store to relocate in 2009 due to declining sales, becoming the first foreign luxury brand to leave the area, with designers Dolce & Gabbana, Patek Philippe and Boucheron soon following.
Zhou Ting, head of the Fortune Character Institute, a consulting firm specializing in luxury products, said that for foreign brands, the old buildings in the Bund were used more like an image showroom rather than a store.
In 2004, only a selection of Shanghai residents were familiar with the Armani brand, but now the brand has gained popularity around China it no longer needs an outlet on the Bund, said Hong Shuhui, an executive at Colliers International, adding that there are many places outside of the Bund in Shanghai that are perfect for international brands to set up a flagship store.
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