Tadashi Yanai is Japan’s richest man. The business he heads, Uniqlo, is embarking on a major expansion plan that is set to increase the number of its stores by 200 each year for the next 9 years. If it is successful in this, Uniqlo will go from being the fourth-largest clothing company — behind Zara, H&M and Gap — to the undisputed number one. Currently the business has 1,000 stores worldwide and sales of $12.5 billion. By 2020, the objective is over 4,000 stores and sales of $60 billion, with annual profits of $12 billion.
The inspiration for Uniqlo came from a visit to the UK in the early 1980s. Yanai saw the success of Next and how it had grown from sales of $20 million to sales of over $2 billion. With Next as a benchmark, he returned to Japan and set up the first Unique Clothing Warehouse (later shortened to Uniqlo) in his hometown of Hiroshima.
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