Chinese art toy brand Pop Mart plans to open its first European flagship store in Paris, a move aimed at expanding its international presence despite a slowdown in overseas business growth.
According to the South China Morning Post on September 8, Pop Mart's flagship store will be located on Boulevard Haussmann, a major shopping street in Paris known for housing prominent department stores like Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.
In advance of the store opening, Wang Ning, founder and CEO of Pop Mart, visited Paris to enhance local brand recognition. Earlier this month, he met with Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, at the luxury conglomerate's headquarters. During the meeting, Wang presented Arnault with a limited edition product celebrating the 10th anniversary of Pop Mart's signature character, LaBubu. Also present were Delphine Arnault, CEO of Dior, and Pietro Beccari, CEO of Louis Vuitton.
Pop Mart is reportedly exploring further collaboration opportunities with LVMH after partnering with its luxury brand Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton last year to celebrate LaBubu's 10th anniversary.
Jeff Zhang, an analyst at investment firm Morningstar, told the South China Morning Post that Wang's visit to Paris appears primarily aimed at raising Pop Mart's profile. He noted that Pop Mart is looking to leverage its key intellectual properties (IP) for potential additional business collaborations with LVMH, suggesting that Pop Mart's IP could be integrated into some of LVMH's luxury products in the future.
The connection between Pop Mart and LVMH has been developing since last year. In October, artist Kasing Lung, who created LaBubu, met with Arnault in Paris, and in December, Wu Wei, LVMH's chairman for Greater China, joined Pop Mart's board of directors.
Zhang anticipates that Pop Mart will increase collaborations with luxury brands, which he believes will contribute to the company's licensing revenue growth.
This strategic move comes as Pop Mart faces a slowdown in overseas business growth. In the first half of this year, the company's revenue reached 17.17 billion yuan (approximately $2.4 billion), a 23.8% increase compared to the same period last year. However, this growth rate is significantly lower than the nearly 200% increase recorded during the same timeframe last year.
Notably, the decline in overseas business has been pronounced, with international sales dropping 11.1% to 4.97 billion yuan. The share of overseas sales in total revenue also fell from 40.3% in the first half of last year to 29% this year.
Pop Mart has revised its revenue growth target for this year, now expecting to achieve a 20% increase, and plans to focus on strengthening its business fundamentals and optimizing its global distribution network rather than pursuing short-term store expansion.
Wang's international activities have also intensified recently. In July, he visited Apple's headquarters in the U.S., where he met with then-CEO Tim Cook and incoming CEO John Ternus. Pop Mart stated that they discussed creative design, the digital ecosystem, and global consumer trends during that meeting.
Despite the slowdown in overseas growth, Pop Mart continues to pursue global market expansion as a long-term core strategy. As of June this year, the company operates 676 offline stores worldwide, with 419 located in mainland China. There are 36 stores in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, 90 in the Asia-Pacific region, 86 in the Americas, and 45 in Europe and other regions.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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