MANILA, Philippines — Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo said it will open its first store in the Philippines in June at the SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Fast Retailing Co., the operator of Uniqlo, had its media launch in Makati on Thursday. 

At the same time, Uniqlo Philippines also opened an official Facebook page and website.

The SM Mall of Asia store will feature approximately 1,550 square meters of floor space offering  Filipino shoppers all of Uniqlo’s latest fashions for men, women, kids and babies.

Naoki Otoma, group executive vice president of Fast Retailing Co. and managing director of Uniqlo Asia and Japan, said Asia’s No. 1 apparel company is very excited to begin operations in the country as he believes in the great potential of the market.

The Japanese company and local partner SM Retail Inc. has created a joint-venture company, Fast Retailing Philippines Inc.

Katsumi Kubota, CEO of Fast Retailing Philippines, said a ‘truly great clothing is based on quality and the ability of the consumer to be able to mix and match pieces’ — and this is what the company intends to do in Manila. 

Currently the fourth-largest apparel company in the world, Uniqlo operates 851 stores in Japan, 113 in China, 67 in South Korea, 16 in Hong Kong, seven in Taiwan, and three each in Malaysia and Thailand. 

It also has 13 branches in the United Kingdom, three in the United States, and two each in Russia and France.

Fast Retailing Philippines earlier said it is investing $2.49 million to open three stores in the country this year. But apart from the SM Mall of Asia, the company has yet to decide on the two other locations.

Uniqlo will be the second foreign clothing brand of the SM group after Forever 21.