Starting this spring, the specialty store TOKYO BASE Co., Ltd. will strengthen the “Global Niche” strategy of its leading STUDIOUS brand, with the aim of doubling sales in the upcoming accounting period.

President Masato Tani explains, “We will further develop the small ‘Tokyo Designer Mode’ market to become an outstanding presence.” In spring 2020, TOKYO BASE will develop a small-scale concept business encompassing a collection of brands dedicated solely to dress suits in Japan. As part of its overseas business, TOKYO BASE will open a “STUDIOUS TOKYO” store in Shenzhen, China in April 2020, followed by a store in Beijing in September.

For its domestic STUDIOUS business in Japan, TOKYO BASE will maintain the current number of shops, but seek to double sales by expanding retail space. STUDIOUS sales grew 2.6% from March to August 2019, demonstrating a clear improvement in the brand’s avoidance of over-relying on sales and its ability to develop its merchandisers.

The STUDIOUS shop in the newly built Shibuya PARCO shopping mall enjoyed strong total sales of 19 million yen over its first three days, but President Tani remarks, “We still lack strong staff capable of creating and implementing the bold ideas and contents needed for us to achieve double-digit growth.” In the upcoming period, TOKYO BASE will actively develop contents for new markets and business models, as well as the related staff.

In November 2019, President Tani personally took on the role of director of the men’s division. Tani solicited business ideas and opinions from staff over a short period of time, leading to the “STUDIOUS DRESS” (draft name) concept that will be launched at its street-front stores beginning this spring. While the casual setup look has been selling strongly over the past several years, TOKYO BASE will place its bet on the niche market devoted to apparel collections in the designer brand suit category.

STUDIOUS stores will also proceed with developing niche contents in parallel. President Tani explains their strategy, “We must become better known to expand the scale of our domestic and overseas sales. To do that, we must become even more ‘niche-ified’ so people know what kind of store we are. We must also reduce the proportion of original goods.”

TOKYO BASE’s “Tokyo Designer Niche Strategy” has been successful overseas, and sales have been strong at the company’s STUDIOUS TOKYO Shanghai store ever since it opened in August 2019. The company has received numerous requests from Chinese commercial facilities to open stores in their locations, and the company is accelerating its pace of store openings.

TOKYO BASE has fixed the time period for its Shenzhen and Beijing store openings. Including the Chengdu location still being negotiated, all stores will be directly operated, each with over 300 square meters of retail floor space in sites facing the roadside. The Hong Kong STUDIOUS TOKYO location will be renovated in December to expand its retail space to approximately 400 square meters.

In the coming period, TOKYO BASE plans to open a total of seven stores in China, including “UNITED TOKYO” and “PUBLIC TOKYO.” Both will have retail floor space of approximately 200 square meters.