Market Information

Over the past few months the Unicon team have been working hard fitting out our first concept store in the new “Fangheng Mall” in Chaoyang District, Beijing. The store opens today so please feel free to come along to celebrate with us! The image below is of the shop’s last stage of the fit-out.

The concept of TOP BRAND is to allow apparel designers to showcase their products to the sophisticating Chinese middle class market. We see huge demand for genuine imported designer apparel in Beijing but most brands sit in a price bracket outside what the average Chinese consumer can afford.

To overcome these pricing issues we import end of season stock from designers and brands from around the world. In essence TOP BRAND will be a middle to high end outlet store.

The store will open with past season ranges from Calvin Klein, Z Zegna and Lacoste and there will be a fast turn over of labels to keep the store fresh and interesting for our customers.

Latest images of the store below.

Joe

A COURT in the southern Guangdong Province has fined a five-star hotel after holding it responsible for leasing space to a seller of knockoff Louis Vuitton products. The Intermediate People’s Court in Dongguan City ordered the hotel to pay 100,000 yuan (US$14,124), in combined compensation with the shop manager, to the French luxury goods producer. The court also ordered the shop and the hotel to stop selling the products and destroy any remaining counterfeit items. The court documents didn’t name the hotel but said it collected a monthly rental of 20,000 yuan from the shop. The documents said the salespeople in the shop wore hotel uniforms. “There were no signboards or any notices in the shop for customers to be able to identify that its management was independent from the hotel,” the court ruled. Louis Vuitton demanded compensation of 500,000 yuan from the hotel and a public apology. But the court said the hotel hadn’t caused widespread market harm to the brand. The French firm has also won a suit against a Chinese handbag producer for copying its trademark design, sources within the No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in Beijing said. The court heard the handbag company obtained a Chinese patent in October 2003 for a bag design, but Louis Vuitton said it was too similar to its trademark design. It took the Chinese company to court in April The court said it had no jurisdiction over the validity of the patent, but could order the firm to stop using the design because it was being disputed.

Source: Bag maker sues fakers

via Shanghai Daily: National by on 3/19/08

Purcasing Foreign Luxury goods allow Chinese consumers to project an image of success. Young professionals earning $350 a month are willing to buy $400 mobile phones from Nokia because they can then feel successful.

Photo:www.china.com

China is a country were women who make 3000 RMB a month will spend half a year’s savings on a bag. Why don’t they buy fakes? Their explanation is that although they might not make a lot of money, they are around people who can spot a fake bag from 50 meters.

People do not want to be outdone by their friends. In a society where there are an ever increasing number of wealthy consumers there is a growing drive to keep up.

Audi expects China to become its second largest market after Germany in two years

BMW’s China sales increased 56 per cent to 26,438 units in the first nine months from a year earlier, outperforming its 2005 full-year sales of 24,025 units.

NZ HERALD: Wealthy Chinese market opens up for Audi