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MINISO opens first stores in Vietnam

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Cheap homeware, bags and electrical goods will be available in 12 stores by the end of the year.

Japanese lifestyle and fashion brand Miniso opened its first three outlets in Hanoi on September 10.

Its entry into Vietnam is part of a franchise deal inked with Vietnam’s Le Bao Minh Group in April this year. The company plans to open 12 stores by the end of this year, the news site said.

Miniso was co-founded in 2013 by Japanese designer Miyake Jyunya and Chinese businessman Ye Guofu.

SEE ALSO: Miniso to expand in the US

The brand has 1,600 stores in 22 countries and territories, having started with just four stores in Tokyo. It plans to raise the total number of outlets to 6,000 by 2020, said Ye Guofu, global co-founder of Miniso and vice chairman of Miniso Asia-Pacific.

Le Bao Minh Group is best known as the exclusive distributor of Japan’s Canon, having more than 230 stores across Vietnam with average annual sales of more than VND3 trillion ($134 million).

Vietnam’s retail market has grown at roughly 10 percent per year in recent years, and sales are likely to reach $109 billion in 2017, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.

The Southeast Asian nation has also climbed to 11th place on the A.T. Kearny 2016 Global Retail Development Index, which identifies the world’s top 30 retail markets with the most potential for investment opportunities.

(Source: VN Express)