(Yicai Global) Feb. 27 -- Miniso Group, a Chinese discount retailer of lifestyle and household goods, will open a global flagship store in New York’s world-famous commercial and tourist hub, Times Square.

The big new store will have a floor area of 500 square meters, The Paper reported, citing Miniso founder Ye Guofu as saying during a public event held last week. Only super-large outlets can impress consumers and build brand image, he noted.

Ye unveiled Miniso’s first store in downtown Chengdu in China’s southwestern Sichuan province on Feb. 5. It covers nearly 1,000 sqm. The Guangzhou-based company will also open a national flagship store in Beijing, he said, without disclosing a date.

Apple has flagship stores in South, East, and North China, along with some experiential retail outlets, which raises the US tech giant’s consumer brand awareness and increases their knowledge of it, Ye added, noting that big stores profit more.

Miniso had 5,296 stores globally as of Sept. 30 last year, with 97 percent of them franchises, according to its financial report. The firm opened 497 outlets between June 30, 2019 and June 30, 2020, another 527 through June 30, 2021, and 450 more over the next 12 months.

Being cost-effective has been a very successful competitive strategy for Miniso in the past decade, Ye pointed out. As the firm grows, it becomes better able to bargain with suppliers as it seeks global vendors and discovers more competitive and efficient ones, such as Vietnam, Ye noted.

Miniso’s shares [HKG: 9896] rose 0.8 percent to HKD32 (USD4.08) in Hong Kong today, after soaring by up to 8.7 percent in the morning. Its New York stock [NYSE: MNSO] inched up 0.2 percent to USD16.45 yesterday.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev