(Yicai Global) Nov. 10 -- Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing brand with more stores in China than in its home country, is pushing ahead with plans to open more retail outlets in its biggest overseas market, according a company executive. 

“We’re still planning to open at least 80 to 100 stores per year at a very steady clip,” Wu Pinhui, chief marketing officer for Uniqlo in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, told Yicai Global in an interview at the third China International Import Expo yesterday.

The number of Uniqlo stores in China hit 767 at the end of August, surpassing for the first time the number of its direct-sale stores in Japan at 764. It opened 44 new venues in China from June to last month, and the total number topped 800, with many popping up in the country’s third- and fourth-tier cities, according to Wu.

“Of course, this target will change with China's economic development, but infiltrating China's third- and fourth-tier cities is our constant goal,” Wu said.

Uniqlo has logged a better-than-expected recovery in China this year as sales resurged to year-ago levels from May onward.

Yamaguchi-based Fast Retailing Group, Uniqlo's parent company, plans to establish another 3,000 stores in China in the future, with sales projected to hit JPY2 trillion (USD19.1 billion), according to founder Tadashi Yanai, Japan’s richest person.

This is the first time for Uniqlo to attend the five-day CIIE that concludes in Shanghai today. It set up a 1,500-square-meter exhibition area named the Museum of Tomorrow, which is the largest of all booths in the expo's consumer products zone. It has been showcasing portable, waterproof and anti-static novelty gigantic down jackets, one-piece 3D knitted art, the breathing AIRism stretch fabric, and the windproof and waterproof Blocktech fabric.

Fast Retailing posted revenue of about JPY2 trillion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, down 12.3 percent on the year, per the firm’s earnings report.

As its core business, Uniqlo's revenue was just over 82.2 percent of the company’s total, while other brands contributed under 20 percent. Fast Retailing’s sales revenue from Japan accounted for 40.2 percent of the total in the fiscal year, while that from China made up 22.7 percent. 

Editor: Ben Armour