Mulberry officially launches Asia business

Mulberry has officially launched Mulberry Asia, a new company it has established with majority shareholder Challice to run its business in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The British luxury brand confirmed it would be establishing the new entity when it revealed its interim results in December and said it would debut with four stores in the region (two in China, one in Hong Kong and one in Taiwan), a Chinese-language site and a wholesale and omnichannel network.

The business will start trading in Hong Kong from 3 April with a subsidiary in China and a branch office in Taiwan expected to be operational later this year when relevant business licenses for those territories are received.

Mulberry itself will own 60% of the new venture, while Challice, which is owned by Singapore billionaire Christina Ong, will hold the remaining 40%. Challice holds a 56% stake in Mulberry Plc.

In addition to the investment in the region, Mulberry plans to invest around £3m over the next two years to build brand awareness in the region to enable it to capitalise on international tourist flows to the UK, Europe and North America. In the near term it will open a new store in Shanghai and will relocate existing stores in Hong Kong and Beijing.

Mulberry CEO Thierry Andretta said the launch "enables us to advance our international strategy of developing the brand's retail and omni-channel model in a key luxury market."

"We see significant growth opportunity in the region and look forward to taking this major step forward in fulfilling Mulberry's global potential," he added.