Fashion
It’s taken 30 years, but Japanese department store Tokyu has finally opened its second store in Thailand’s capital Bangkok.
Tokyu Thailand has operated a lone department store in the city’s ageing MBK shopping centre in the heart of the main urban retail precinct and adjacent to National Stadium since 1985.
Now it has opened a 13,000sqm, two story store in Paradise Park, a shopping centre in the city’s eastern suburbs jointly developed by MBK and Siam Piwat.
Tokyu Thailand operations are run by Paradise Retail, a 50-50 joint venture between Bangkok-Tokyu Department Store Co and Paradise Retail. CEO Takashi Hayano told The Nation newspaper the company is targeting sales of between 700 and 800 million THB in the first year of trading, or US$21 – 24 million.
Hayano says the new store is aimed more at local shoppers than tourists, who account for the majority of sales at MBK.
“We have seen the potential of eastern Bangkok and we have our good partner here,” he said.
Neither Tokyu Thailand store has a food offer. They focus on apparel, cosmetics, sportswear, luggage, accessories and stationery.
The new store will include concessions for popular international brands along with carefully selected Japanese brands the company believes will appeal to Thai shoppers, including Miss Kyouko, Syunsoku, About 79 and Onitsuka Tiger.
