Lane Crawford, Hong Kong's leading specialty fashion store, is going to close its store in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province in March when the contract with its property owner Hempl International ends.
Lane Crawford department store in Hangzhou used to be the Guoda Department store until November 2001 when it was re-branded as Lane Crawford after being sold to Hempel. However, the property was sold to Guoda Group again in June 2006, which meant that Lane Crawford had to be closed when the agreement ended.
A representative from Lane Crawford says that Guoda will continue to operate a shopping plaza at this site, and many brand dealers may maintain their positions in the new plaza. The remaining brands are now cleaning out their stock and moving to other locations.
With the closure of Lane Crawford Hangzhou, all the three department stores of Lane Crawford in mainland China will be closed. Lane Crawford in Shanghai was taken over by Maison Mode and another Lane Crawford in Harbin is scheduled to be replaced by Maison Mode as well.
The reason for Lane Crawford's failure in China might be attributed to the inadequate localization of its brand, which also shows that some top-end department stores can not be accepted by mainland consumers.
well, i would like to have a business opertunity directly or indirectly with china products