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GIORDANO, the Italian-sounding Hong Kong-based
casual-clothing label, envisions to be the best and
biggest world brand. But as of now, the label
concentrates on the Asia-Pacific region. Why so? When
does it plan to penetrate Europe and the US for it to
become truly global?
“Giordano is present in 40 countries. In the United
States we opened the first store in Arcadia in Los
Angeles. The second Giordano store will open sometime
August this year at the Kodak Theatre right beside the
flagship store of Louis Vuitton,” explains Joyce Sia,
the operations manager for the Philippines. “Giordano
has 1,800 stores located in
China,
Southeast Asia including Australia, the Middle East,
Japan, Korea and Canada. It’s a global or ‘world brand’
as envisioned by Peter Lau, the chairman and CEO of
Giordano, a brand that has no center, knows no natural
borders, is cross-cultural and is owned by local
consumers. [Like the mantra ‘Think Global, Act Local.’]
Filipinos should feel that Giordano is their brand,
Australians should feel that Giordano is their brand,
the consumers in Japan should feel that Giordano is
their brand.”
According to Sia, Giordano opened its first store in
1989 at the SM City North Edsa Annex building. Giordano
Philippines now operates 36 company-owned stores and has
five subfranchisees. With its comfortable, simple and
standard but stylish lines, it has captured a certain
niche in the market and sales have been consistent over
the years. It plans to open two more stores this year
and will expand its presence in the provinces next year.
“Giordano’s existence in the
Philippines
for almost 20 years speaks well of a very good following
among Filipinos. Giordano’s appeal to Filipinos is
attributed to its simplicity in design, quality of the
merchandise, service and value. We have always created
easy-to-wear pieces that can easily be mixed and
matched. Innovations have been introduced while still
sticking to our domain of being able to provide the
basic tees, white shirts, khakis and denims, as we know
that people will always prefer to go casual and dress
down. Less is more,” continues Sia. “The denim
collection is the initial offering of our Fall/Winter
collection. Giordano has always catered to the AB market
from 18 years old and above.”
So
confident and optimistic is the label that it mounted a
big show at TriNoma, the newest mall in the metropolis.
No celebrity designers, no famous endorsers—just the
clothes speaking for themselves. “A lot of changes have
happened for the past three years with Giordano, and we
just thought that launching a big fashion show that also
complements the new concept design of our
420-square-meter TriNoma store is a way of telling our
customers where the brand is today,” adds Sia.
“The
retail business in the
Philippines
has been difficult for the past couple of years, and
this is why brands should never be complacent. Giordano
for one has continuously made innovations in its
merchandise and systems that the brand will be in the
Philippines for a long time,” Sia concludes.
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