Uniqlo shakes up leadership with CEO and COO appointments

Highstreet favourite, Uniqlo, shakes up its leadership team – appointing Founder Tadashi Yanai to CEO and Board Director Daisuke Tsukagoshi to COO – as it continues to scale.

The Japanese retailer commenced a shift to strengthen its leadership team, which will come into effect from 1 September. With this, Tadashi Yanai, the founder of its parent company Fast Retailing, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer.

He will continue to "lead the managerial decision-making and business expansion processes" for Uniqlo and the entire group in his role as CEO of Fast Retailing (which also owns Theory).

Tadashi Yanai

Yanai, who is currently the Executive Director, Chairman and President of Uniqlo, will be passing the torch to Daisuke Tsukagoshi. Tsukagoshi, who is currently the Director of the Board, has also been named Chief Operating Officer.

Daisuke Tsukagoshi

The Uniqlo veteran joined the parent company Fast Retailing in 2002. During his 21 years in the business, he managed store operations in the US and China. In July 2022, he stepped into the role of North American CEO to take on the restructuring task post-pandemic.

These new appointments were made in a bid to reformulate the management structure with a team that brings together managers in each market. This is also reflective of the company's ‘Zen-in Keiei’ management style, which allows everyone to participate in the company's decision-making.

For the fiscal year 2022, Fast Retailing Group reported a 7.9% increase in revenue to £13.7 billion (¥2.3 trillion), after a year of continued expansion.

Uniqlo Japan saw a decline in revenue, but a 0.6% rise in operating profit to £739,171 (¥123.2 million). In Europe (excluding Russia), Uniqlo International reported a 20.3% revenue increase to £6.5 billion (¥1.1 trillion).