Louis Weedon Armani And Other Luxury Brands Withdraw From Argentina

Moderator: please give us a brief introduction of the specific circumstances and reasons for Louis Weedon's divestment from Argentina.

Reporter: in fact, the news that Louis Weedon will withdraw from Argentina has been rumoured before, but it has only recently been officially confirmed.

According to Louis Weedon, the world's famous bag brand will close its boutique on the Argentina capital, Buenos Aires, on Friday, the only store in Argentina, the capital of Buenos Aires, local time.

The main reason for this decision is Argentina's import restriction policy.

In recent years, the Argentina government has adopted policies such as increasing exports and restricting imports in order to reduce debt and maintain trade surplus.

In particular, since 2012, restrictions on imports have been continuously strengthened, and almost 9 days will be introduced.

In such a big economic environment, Louis Weedon's stock has basically run out, and many goods are in a state of being out of stock, so closing the door can be said to be a helpless move.

In addition, a large amount has been implemented in Argentina.

The system, that is to say, if a person's consumption at 50 thousand pesos, or more than 10 thousand dollars, must be examined by the federal public revenue authority of Argentina, and the proof of income is provided. This policy also has a considerable negative impact on Louis Weedon's sales in Argentina.

However, though

The business situation is not very satisfactory, but Louis Weedon seems to be very optimistic about the market in South America.

According to its new plan, it will open a new flagship store in east corner of Uruguay in December this year, which will become a "stronghold" of its expansion in South America together with another store in Santiago, Chile.

Moderator: as far as we know, Louis Weedon is not the only world famous brand to decide to divest from Argentina. Many world-famous luxury brands have had difficulties in their local operations.

According to what you have observed in Argentina, is this really the case?

Reporter: Yes, the situation is not very optimistic.

Just because I just mentioned the import restriction policy and the large consumption censorship system, the Cartire store on the Louis Weedon store in Buenos Aires also announced not long ago that it will stop operating in Argentina in October 31st.

Prior to that, Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, and Costa and other famous clothing brands have closed their stores in Argentina.

In addition, the American fashion brand CK also stopped its underwear production line in Argentina. Chanel said it could not keep pace with new products in Argentina and other parts of the world.

Zara is already producing some of its garments in Argentina because of its failure to import.

In fact, not only are these luxury brands affected, but even Starbucks, a coffee chain shop that Argentines consume every day, is also faced with the dilemma of having no cups.

Not long ago, Argentina Starbucks's Twitter account issued a tweet, saying that the customs were still in a state of customs clearance due to the exhaustion of inventory. Argentina Starbucks can only provide locally produced cups to people.

In addition, due to import restrictions, many public hospitals in Argentina are also seriously lack of basic medical items such as rubber gloves, syringes and tampon. Many non urgent surgical operations have to be postponed.

As far as my experience is concerned, an original Canon camera battery has recently become an uncommon "rare thing".

It must be admitted that in order to maintain trade surplus and revitalize domestic industries, the import restriction measures implemented in Argentina are understandable and reasonable. However, the mode of implementation is indeed too radical and brings about a lot of economic and social problems.