Galeries Lafayette forms a joint venture with Hopson Group to initiate a new deployment phase in China
Ready to scale up its ambitions for the Chinese market, Galeries Lafayette has formed a joint venture with Hopson Group – a major listed property firm established in south-eastern China – with a view to developing a strategic partnership. This alliance will take the roll-out of the Galeries Lafayette brand in China into a new dimension, stepping up the pace of openings to reach 10 stores by 2025, and strengthening its digital presence as part of an omnichannel approach. In addition to Beijing and Shanghai flagship stores, Galeries Lafayette will open three new stores – in Shenzhen, Chongqing and Macau – in 2023.
This ambitious project is based on strong complementarities between the two partners. Galeries Lafayette will leverage Hopson Group’s property portfolio, its expertise as an operator of high-end urban complexes and shopping centers, as well as its profound knowledge of the Chinese market to continue meeting the unique expectations of different generations of customers as closely as possible with a carefully curated offering. Hopson Group will draw on Galeries Lafayette’s strong identity and fashion and luxury expertise to deploy multi-brand concepts promoting a specific vision of the French art of living at the heart of unique and selective multi-brand environments.
The strategic partnership will come into effect over the next few weeks. Galeries Lafayette and Hopson Group will hold equal shares and voting rights in the joint venture.
“Our Group has always enjoyed close and unique ties with China. As our first store in Beijing celebrates its 10-year anniversary and the country gradually reopens to the world after three challenging years,
we are delighted to initiate a new phase in our Chinese growth by forging a strategic partnership with Hopson Group. This partnership illustrates our shared ambition of accelerating the roll-out of our brand and creating a major retailer capable of responding to generational trends and the strong potential for growth in domestic consumption between now and 2030. We share the same views as regards the added-value fashion offerings and experiences we want to share with our customers, and firmly believe that we can collaboratively develop a surprising and innovative store model showcasing the best France has to offer.”
“At the end of 2022, Hopson Commercial successfully launched its first high-end product line project——MOHO MALL, which aroused a warm market response. This collaboration with Galeries Lafayette will also continue to enhance our brand connotation in new consumer areas, consumers can enjoy the original French shopping experience, but also enjoy the innovative Oriental culture and unique local services”