(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Luxury fashion house Coach may follow peers Louis Vuitton and Ralph Lauren by opening restaurants and coffee shops in China.

Although Coach has not yet confirmed the move, information on corporate platform Tianyancha showed that Coach Trading Shanghai recently entered the catering sector.

Ralph Lauren brought Ralph’s Coffee to Beijing in 2020 and Shanghai in 2021. Louis Vuitton opened its first restaurant in Chengdu last year. IWC Schaffhausen, a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer, opened a concept store that also offers food and beverages in Shanghai in 2022.

Luxury brands have diversified their operations to convey brand image and boost sales, a fashion industry insider told Yicai Global.

Coach has developed stably in China in recent years. It had over 360 stores in the country, Yang Baoyan, Coach China’s president and chief executive officer, told Yicai Global in November. “We plan to open 30 new outlets next year and another 100 in the next three years,” Yang noted.

In recent years, many fashion brands have branched out into the dessert, coffee, chocolate, and restaurant sectors by opening outlets as well as through mergers and acquisitions and brand cooperation. The boundaries between industries are becoming increasingly blurred, sources at popular fashion brands told Yicai Global. 

“Compared with a CNY20,000 (USD2,900) bag and a CNY100,000 (USD14,515) watch, the average outlay per person in a cafe or restaurant of luxury brands is a few hundreds of Chinese yuan,” one of the people said. “It can also be used to turn diners into brand users.” 

As social media are an essential part of people’s lives, independent fashion observer Wang Xiao said, consumers share their visits to high-end and popular restaurants, which is an effective marketing method for brands.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione