Minor Corp pursues rights to market anello bags in CLMV
MINOR CORP is negotiating with Carrot Company, the Japan-based owner of anello, a well-known bag brand, on acquiring exclusive rights to distribute its products in CLMV markets (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) by next year.
Nuntawan Suwandej, general manager of Anello at Minor Corp, said anello would be one of the flagship brands to be promoted and distributed by Minor beyond Thailand into markets abroad.
She said Minor had held the exclusive right to import anello bags from Japan for six months and had been able to outstrip Hong Kong and Singapore to become the largest market for the brand outside Japan.
“We now operate 39 selling points for anello, of which 15 are free-standing stores, and the rest shop-in-shop outlets at major department stores and open-space shops. We plan to increase the number of anello stores to 70 in total by the end of this year,” Nuntawan said.
She said Minor Corp, which is a leading distributor of imported brands in the fashion, lifestyle and kitchenware categories, had targeted anello sales to increase significantly from between Bt300 million and Bt350 million expected for this year to about Bt1 billion within five years.
“We will spend the first two years of holding the exclusive rights to anello to expand the retail network for the brand. We expect the total number of anello stores in Thailand to reach 100 by next year, which will be the optimal number to generate sales effectively for the brand.”
Product assortments
She said that after the first two years, the company would focus on managing product assortments, including the launch of limited and exclusive anello products into the Thai market.
Free-standing shops will occupy total retail space of 80 square metres each and carry about 800 Anello bags. Meanwhile, each open-space shop will occupy 30-40sqm of retail space and carry about 150 product items. Shop-in-shop outlets will occupy 10-15sqm each of retail space and carry 70-80 items.
Takeshi Yoshida, chief executive of Carrot Company, said the firm sold 9 billion yen (Bt3.15 billion) worth of anello bags last year, 8.5 billion yen of which was in its home Japanese market, and 500 million yen in overseas markets, mainly in Asia.
In Asia, anello bags are now available in Greater China, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand.
“We target to increase the annual sales of Anello to 20 billion yen totally within the next five years,” said Yoshida, adding that in Japan, the company planned to open anello flagship stores in Tokyo and Osaka in the near future.
Nuntawan said that regarding Japan-imported brands and importing popular brands to Thailand, Minor continued to seek new opportunities.
First of all, it focuses on the trends and needs of the Thai consumers. Thai consumers like Japanese aesthetics, fashion and culture. Because of anello’s unique strengths, there is still room for growth for the brand, as it is committed to developing its products constantly, a value it shares with Minor.
“We are also looking into Korean brands, as that country has become increasingly popular among Thai people,” she said.
