Popular Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo announced last Feb. 9 that its first store in the Philippines will open in June in SM Mall of Asia, one of Asia’s largest malls, bringing in its casual apparel to 1,550 square meters of floor area, one of the largest in the mall.

According to Fast Retailing (FR) Philippines, which will operate the store in the country, it has a paid-in capital of P400 million and more stores are set to open in the next few years. About a hundred Filipinos will be employed to man the store.

The coming of Uniqlo into the country is made possible through a partnership with SM. In the last quarter of last year, the country’s largest retail store and mall chain announced that SM Retail, a part of the conglomerate SM Investments Corp., went into agreement with Japan’s Fast Retailing Corp., through subsidiary Market Watch Investment Corp., to put up a new joint venture company that would put up the first Uniqlo store in Manila in 2012.

“The joint venture is expected to create excitement in the dynamic local retail market as it will bring to Manila a global brand known for its high-quality fashionable basic casual clothes for both sexes that can be worn in any occasion,” SM Retail statement said.

Earlier, SM, which is known for its mass appeal, brought fashion brand Forever 21 and Payless shoes, both known for their affordability, to the Philippines. Uniqlo is also known for its affordable yet high-quality products.

Uniqlo traces its roots to men’s wear store Men’s Shop OS in Ube, Yamaguchi, which started in 1949 and was owned by the Ogori Shôji company. In 1984, a unisex casual wear store opened in Fukuro-machi, Naka-ku, Hiroshima, called Unique Clothing Warehouse, which in time became known as the contracted Uniqlo. In September 1991, Ogori Shôji became Fast Retailing, launching into full-scale chain store operations, and by April 1994 there were over 100 Uniqlo stores in Japan. Uniqlo is presently Japan’s largest retail clothing store. Other brands of Fast Retailing are Comptoir des Cotonniers, g.u., Princesse Tam Tam and Theory.

Uniqlo began its overseas expansion with the opening of a store in Shanghai, China, in 2002, and then in London, England. Uniqlo stores can also be found in the United States (New York), Hong Kong (Tsim Sha Tsui) and South Korea (Seoul). In November 2010, the largest Uniqlo store outside Japan opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Uniqlo’s forays into Southeast Asia included recent introductions of locations in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The Philippine store is said to reinforce Uniqlo’s rapidly growing retail presence in Southeast Asia.

“Asia offers enormous growth potential for Uniqlo and is a key regional focus of the brand’s global expansion strategy. By January 2012, Uniqlo’s network of stores included 851 locations in Japan, 214 throughout the rest of Asia and 234 in other global markets. Uniqlo started opening its first stores in Thailand in September 2011, following its successful expansion into Singapore and Malaysia, increasing its lineup in Southeast Asia to 11 retail locations. Now, as the brand continues to accelerate its regional expansion efforts, the Uniqlo Mall of Asia is set to offer the joy of truly great clothing to shoppers in the Philippines,” said the statement from the company.

According to Katsumi Kubota, chief operating officer of FR Philippines, they chose SM as partner because of communities. One is Uniqlo’s philosophy of “Made for All” being in synch with SM’s mass appeal. Another is SM being the number-one retail group in the country. Uniqlo aspires to be the number-one brand in the country as well as in the world.

Naoki Otama, group executive vice president of FR and managing director of Uniqlo Asia and Japan, said that Uniqlo is presently the fourth largest apparel company in the world, after Spain’s Zara, Sweden’s Hennes and Mauritz, and America’s Gap, and number one in Asia. They aim Uniqlo to be number one by 2020, opening 200 stores each year, 100 of them in Southeast Asia.

Kubota said that Unqlo’s full offerings will be made available to Filipinos. What you will see in Shanghai, where Uniqlo’s flagship store in Asia is, you will see in the Philippines, he said. Uniqlo offers T-shirts, pants, skirts and innerwear.

Kubota also said that they will follow the global pricing policy but will formulate price schemes that are affordable to Filipinos.

“Uniqlo is an innovative Japanese company with a mission to enable people all over the world to experience the joy, happiness and satisfaction of wearing truly great casual clothing,” he said.

For more information, the Uniqlo official Facebook page is www.facebook.com/uniqlo.ph and Web site is www.uniqlo.com/ph.