(Yicai Global) March 20 — US luxury fashion house Coach may follow peers Luis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren in opening its own restaurants and coffee shops in China.
Although Coach has not yet confirmed the news, information on corporate platform Tianyancha showed that the firm’s unit Coach Shanghai recently entered the catering industry.
Ralph Lauren brought Ralph’s Coffee to Beijing in 2020 and Shanghai in 2021. LV opened its first restaurant in Chengdu last year. IWC Schaffhausen, a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, opened a concept store that also provides catering services in Shanghai in 2022.
Luxury brands diversified their operations to convey brand images and boost sales, a fashion industry insider told Yicai Global.
Coach has developed stably in China in recent years. It had over 360 stores in the country, Yang Baoyan, Coach China’s president and chief executive officer, told Yicai Global in November. “We plan to open 30 new outlets next year and another 100 in the next three years,” Yang noted.
In recent years, many fashion brands tapped into the dessert, coffee, chocolate, and restaurant sectors by opening outlets, acquiring shares, mergers and acquisitions, and brand cooperation. The boundaries between industries are becoming increasingly blurred, practitioners at popular fashion brands told Yicai Global.
“Compared with a CNY20,000 (USD2,900) bag and a CNY100,000 (USD14,515) watch, the average expense per person at luxury houses’ restaurants and cafes is only several hundreds of Chinese yuan, but brand owners can popularize fashion and turn diners into brand users,” the practitioners added, noting that this is an effective and feasible strategy.
Nowadays, social media are an essential part of people’s lives, so consumers are more willing to share details of their visits to high-end and popular restaurants, which is an effective marketing concept for brands, independent fashion observer Wang Xiao said.
Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione
