Japan’s MINISO opens first store in Cebu

Cebu’s first MINISO opened on Friday, November 3. (CDN PHOTO/VICTOR SILVA)

Japanese designer brand MINISO finally opened its first store in Cebu City on Friday, more than one year since the retail chain broke into the Philippine market.

Mini Depato Corp., the master franchisee of Miniso International in the Philippines, opened its first outlet in Robinsons Place Manila in June 2016.

Before Cebu, the company already opened outlets in Iloilo, Bacolod, Davao, General Santos, and other parts of Mindanao.

Michael Hong, Mini Depato president, said it took them a while to set up shop in Cebu because they wanted to make sure they get a prime location.

“Cebu is a very prime market. It took me a while to find a nice location,” he told reporters on the sideline of the store blessing and opening ceremony at SM City Cebu.

Located on the second level of the mall, MINISO’s 36th store in the country boasts of a 560-square meter floor area, big enough to showcase products across nine different categories— life essentials, creative home necessities, health and beauty, jewelry, stylistic gifts, seasonal products, boutique package decoration, digital accessories, as well as food and drink.

Hong shared that they plan to open 300 to 500 stores in the Philippines in the next five years, with no focus on any particular region.

Among the factors they consider when opening a new store are the population of an area and the availability of prime spaces there.

“As long as there are crowds in the malls, we will go there. We don’t care about buying power because the products we offer are very affordable,” he said.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, MINISO was jointly founded by chief designer Miyake Jyunya and Chinese entrepreneur Ye Guofu.

Since 2011, it has opened more than 1,000 stores all over the world with over 80 percent of the brand’s product designs originating from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, China, and other countries.