Intima Asia - N°30 - 2/2009 - (Page 66)

Interview Originating from Japan, Wacoal China has evolved to become one of the leading brands in China. With a remarkable market share and receiving universal praise from consumers, the Managing Director Mr. Yajima Masaaki still finds a lot more to achieve in the years to come. Through an indepth conversation with him, Intima Asia offers you an insight into this prominent organization. W Nowadays we have companies in 5 cities of Mainland China: BeiJing has a production site and sales office, Shanghai has a design office, R&D and sales Our company was set up in office, and there are 3 other 1986 in Beijing. At that time sales offices in Dalian, ChenDu we started a joint venture, partand GuangZhou. Today we have nered with a Chinese company 3 brands on the market: W aand later we bought out the coal, Amphi and Salute. By the partner’s shares. In the early end of this year , throughout MR. YAJIMA MASAAKI years we had 2 main business Mainland C hina w e w ill h ave activities: one involved producing and exporting 250 counters for W acoal and 40 for Salute & products for the Japanese market in order to Amphi in the prestigious department stores, 3 develop and adapt ourselves to the Japanese quality shops-in-shops in Beijing,and a network of about standard, the other consisted in expanding the Chi- approximatly 100 retailers closely linked to us. nese domestic market. Marketwise, in China at You have recently joined Wacoal China. When that time lingerie was regarded only as a tool to cover women’s bodies, not to mention the perception did you get into the intimate apparel industry of fashion. To improve this situation, we decided to and what made you join Wacoal? change the view of lingerie: from “a tool for covering I joined W acoal Japan a long time ago in 1984 after I graduated from college. Over these 26 the body” it would be presented as “an item that gives a sense of pleasure”. For example, we wanted years, I started in the Sales Department dealing acoal China, a leading brand in China’s intimate apparel industry, has been highly popular with Chinese consumers over 2 decades. People throughout the market are very curious to know mor e about such a pr ominent company, and so now, Mr.Yajima, can you start with a brief intr oduction to W acoal China? customers to realize that bras could give them a nice shape. That movement was started in 90’s and we opened R&D Center in Shanghai to realize our idea. And what about to-day?

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Intima Asia - N°30 - 2/2009

Cover
Index
Contents
Editorial
SHOP SCOUTING WORLDWIDE
NEWER NOTABLES
RETAIL NEWS
TÊTE À TÊTE
PHOTOSHOOT
COVER STORY
LINGERIE TRENDS S/S 2010
LAUNCHING
THE GUEST
INTERVIEW
BEACHWEAR TRENDS S/S 2010
MARKET FOCUS
EVENT
EXHIBITION UPDATE
CALENDAR
NETWORK NEWS EXPRESS
EXPO
FABRIC NEWS
FABRIC TRENDS F/W 2010 -11

Intima Asia - N°30 - 2/2009