AFTER shutting down its first China store 15 years ago, French upmarket department store operator Galeries Lafayette returned with a bang with a new store in Beijing on Friday to cash in on China’s growing army of the wealthy.

    The European retail giant has formed a 50-50 joint venture with Hong Kong fashion brand management company I.T. to run the Beijing store, which cost 42 million euros (US$57.46 million) and took three years to build.

    “Beijing is a totally different place compared with 15 years ago,” said Laurent Chemla, chief executive of Galeries Lafayette (Beijing). “The fashion market has been evolving very fast for the past five to six years and people have become more trendy and fashionable.”

    Located in Xidan, a popular shopping zone, the six-story Lafayette store spans about 47,000 square meters, about half the size of its Paris store.

    Unlike its Paris store, which accommodates top luxury brands, the retailer is introducing in China mainly high-end niche brands such as Delvaux, Maje and The Kooples, to cater to Chinese shoppers’ increasingly sophisticated taste and demand for high-end products.

    Chemla said more than 200 of the 500-plus brands sold in the store were being made available in China for the first time. Aside from fashion, cosmetics, accessories and leather goods, there are also French and Asian restaurants.

    Lafayette met its Waterloo in China when it first opened a store in Beijing’s Wangfujing in 1996. The store was closed a year later owing to poor performance. This time, it returns much more confident of making it in the world’s fastest-growing major market.

    “We are now exploring the opportunity of opening more stores in other Chinese cities,” Chemla said. (SD-Agencies)