Kong Jun, CEO of HoF China (L) & House of Fraser CEO Nigel Oddy (R)

On 21st October as per London time, during President Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK, a special conference “China: Opportunities for retailers” was held by UK Trade & Investment (UKTI). Senior managers from Chinese e-commerce and retail enterprises were invited to address their British counterparts, illustrating the huge opportunities available in the Chinese market. House of Fraser (HoF), the famous British department store and now subsidiary of Sanpower Group had Nigel Oddy, its CEO, Peter Gross, COO and Kong Jun, CEO of HoF China attend the event and give a keynote speech as a team.

In recent years, the British government has been actively accelerating the internationalisation of British brands. Accordingly, China has been proactively exploring the British market. Keynote speeches, entitled “Opportunities for Chinese cross-boundary e-commerce” and “Why are entity department stores so attractive?” were given by senior managers on the conference. The comprehensive effect introduced the huge potential of the Chinese market to British enterprises and brands.

Nigel Oddy, CEO of House of Fraser is giving a speech

Kong Jun, CEO of HoF China analysed the current Chinese consumer market: consumers’ needs of high-quality commodities have not been met while many international brands have failed to gain a good footing in the Chinese market due to insufficient understanding of local markets as well as the lack of local operations experience. According to Kong Jun, in order to meet the huge and urgent demands of Chinese consumers, the construction of a super platform is key. This platform should enable more brands from overseas to effectively explore the Chinese market. This is also the operating principle of HoF China.  

In their speeches, Nigel Oddy and Peter Gross also mentioned that the cost for foreign brands entering the Chinese market is too high while their survival rate remains too low. HoF, however, as a mature and famous platform, will significantly increases efficiency and lower risk of debut in the Chinese market. Speeches given by HoF senior managers have demonstrated how the company’s Chinese and British teams closely cooperate. The senior managers also invited all attending British retailers and brands to partner with HoF and explore the Chinese market. This invitation immediately received positive responses, with many attendees expressing strong willingness to cooperate with HoF China.

Kong Jun, CEO of HoF China is giving a speech

It is understood that, since being acquired in 2014 by Nanjing Cenbest, with Sanpower Group as its biggest stakeholder, HoF, as a department store with a 166-year history, has begun to coordinate an exploration of both Chinese and British markets. Accordingly, HoF is about to open its first store in China at Xinjiekou—the CBD of Nanjing, dubbed “the NO.1 CBD in China”. Meanwhile, more British brands will gain access to China via Sanpower’s strong retail channels. The acquisition has also injected new vigour into HoF, with sales in the first half of this fiscal year registering a 6.5% year-on-year growth. This is especially impressive, considering the whole picture of the British economy and competitor performance. In this “Golden Era” of China-UK trade, with an abundance of available resources, new models and huge markets, HoF China is ready to open a new era of China-UK cooperating entity retail sales.

Peter Gross, COO of House of Fraser is giving a speech