Christian Louboutin Brings Jolie’s Shoes to Beijing
(Updates with comment from analyst in fourth paragraph.)
Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Christian Louboutin, the French shoemaker that counts Angelina Jolie among its customers, plans to open stores in China and India as rising incomes buoy luxury spending in Asia’s two fastest-growing major economies.
A Beijing store will open in July, and a second one will start in Shanghai by the end of 2011, founder and designer Christian Louboutin said in an interview in Hong Kong. The luxury shoemaker, which produces its red-soled footwear in Italy, may operate as many as five stores in China in the next three years and may expand in Brazil, he said.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA sales grew 16 percent and Hermes International SCA’s surged 23 percent in the six months through June as shoppers, particularly from China, spent more and distributors restocked inventories. Household wealth in China may more than double to $35 trillion by 2015, surpassing Japan to become the second highest, Credit Suisse AG said Oct. 8.
“China can still be considered as a new market, and definitely Brazil is an emerging country,” Louboutin said in an Oct. 29 interview in Hong Kong. The company will focus on Asia and Brazil in the next three years and may open stores in India in 2012, he said.
Christian Louboutin joins other luxury goods makers in planning expansions in China as economic growth in the U.S. and Europe slowed. Salvatore Ferragamo SpA , an Italian shoemaker that supplied footwear to Jennifer Lopez, may open as many as eight new stores next year in the country.
‘Some Danger’
“There’s some danger for this brand, since it’s not very well known in China,” James Roy, a Shanghai-based senior analyst for China Market Research Group said in a phone interview today. “There is still room, especially on the super high end, but Shanghai and Beijing might not be the best choices” because wealthy consumers in those cities often shop abroad, he said.
Second-tier cities such as Shenyang and Dalian offer more growth, because “very wealthy people there are still not necessarily buying luxury items abroad,” said Roy, who estimates China’s luxury spending, excluding yachts and cars, will reach $9 billion this year from less than $8 billion in 2009.
Per-capita disposable income grew 11 percent in the first quarter in Liaoning, the province where Shenyang and Dalian are located, compared with 10 percent for Shanghai and 8.6 percent for Beijing, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics and Bloomberg calculations.
Rounded Toes
A pair of Christian Louboutin over-the-knee boots sell for $2,495 on the Neiman Marcus Group Inc.’s website while Net-a- Porter.com sells the brand’s knee-high boots for 706 pounds ($1,133).
The shoemaker may tailor its designs to fit the markets it’s entering, Louboutin said. “Asians don’t like very high heels with pointy shoes” and prefer rounded toes while his customers in the Middle East prefer platform shoes, he said.
“Fabric is more popular in France, where women have linen shoes, but not in China,” he said. “In China, when the shoe is made expensive, they expect much more leather.”
Louboutin said he plans to keep making his shoes in Italy and has no plans to start manufacturing in Asia.
“I’m very obsessed with quality,” he said. “I don’t want to triple production in a year. If you do too much production, you lose part of the quality.”
Keeping production in Europe will probably help market the brand in China, said China Market Research Group’s Roy.
Christian Louboutin will open 12 stores next year, including two in China, one in Brazil and two in the Middle East, he said. The company plans two new stores each in Japan and the U.S. and three in Italy.
--With assistance from Susan Li and Hope Ngo in Hong Kong. Editors: Frank Longid, Tan Hwee Ann
To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Leung in Hong Kong at
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To contact the editor responsible for this story: Frank Longid at
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