Lane Crawford To Open Three New Stores In Mainland China

Andrew Keith, newly appointed president of Lane Crawford Hong Kong, has announced the company will start its expansion in mainland China in 2012, and three new chain stores will be opened in Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu, successively.

Andrew Keith says that the new Shanghai Lane Crawford store will open in the third quarter in 2012 with a site area of 14,000 square meters, becoming the new flagship store in mainland China. Meanwhile, Lane Crawford will open its second store in Beijing, which is located in the eastern area of Beijing. In the first quarter of 2014, another new store will open in the second-tier city Chengdu, covering an area of over 9,000 square meters.

This is the first time that Lane Crawford has massively expanded in mainland China. It indicates Lane Crawford's confidence in the mainland market. Even though Andrew refuses to disclose the specific performance of its Beijing store in Beijing Seasons Shopping Center, he emphasizes that its annual performance is really beyond expectations.

In December 2006, Lane Crawford withdrew from the Shanghai market after six years' development. In the spring of 2007, it successively closed its branches in Hangzhou and Harbin. And one year later, Lane Crawford spent HKD300 million to open a new store in Beijing Seasons Shopping Center and restarted its development in the mainland market.