Ryui Masa: UNIQLO Parent Company Will Catch Up With All Retailers.

"Since 2030, why can't it be 30 trillion yen?" Ryui Masa, chairman, President and CEO of Fast Retailing, recently received media interviews and asked reporters who burst out laughing.

Ryui Seiso said the company plans to become the world's largest apparel retailer in 2020.

But in February, he revealed a bigger vision.

Japan fast marketing group is a fast expanding clothing chain brand UNIQLO's parent company, headquartered in Tokyo's second high building - Midtown tower in Tokyo.

Here, Ryui Masa told reporters that UNIQLO has been famous for its rich basic clothing and high-tech innovative fabrics, and its turnover is expected to reach 30 trillion yen (more than 250 billion US dollars) in 2030.

This goal is equivalent to about half of the annual revenue of WAL-MART this year. To achieve such a milestone, it means that the annual turnover of XXX group will increase by nearly 20 times.

But Ryui Masa insisted that he was serious.

Ryui Masa owns more than 1/5 of the company's shares and is named the "richest man" in Japan by Forbes.

He said, "this is not a joke.

I believe we can achieve this dream. "

Two months later, Ryui Masa was still keen to talk about his ambition in the future.

"If you dare to think, you can succeed."

When he visited the office on the 31 floor, he looked down at the endless tall buildings overlooking the window.

On the day of the interview, Ryui Masa wore a casual breeze, wearing a blue sweater and gray trousers, probably a UNIQLO brand clothing, because he had many times wearing his own brand clothing record.

"Most people may think we can't do that," he said.

But small goals do not have incentives.

I think you need to imagine a goal that is big enough, even if it's only possible to achieve it. "

Ryui Masa never evaded negative news, disputes or opinions, which earned him praise. He was called a "rebel" or "revolutionist" of a conservative Japanese enterprise.

Ryui Masa, 66, has changed his family's traditional clothing import business in the past 31 years. He has become the largest clothing manufacturer in Asia and has established a fast growing UNIQLO chain brand.

He is outspoken about many things. He will not hesitate to praise former partner Jil Sander. He will also criticize the retail giants of his peers, and will stand at the national level and encourage them to think more competitively.

When it comes to his early experience in the fashion industry, Ryui Masa seems to have entered the garment industry naturally.

He spoke vividly about his yearning for western fashion and culture.

All this originated from Europe and spread to other parts of the world, which also affected his country.

"The Japanese will observe Western costumes from the unique perspective of an outsider."

Speaking, he opened a book called "traditional fashion" and quickly read it on the pages of Scotland short skirt and retro American style clothing.

By observing Ryui Masa's office, he will find that he has a strong interest in history: the black and white photographs of New York in 40s and 50s are hung on the walls. Two models of ships are decorated on the shelves, one is the "Fragata Siglo XVIII" of the Spanish ships in eighteenth Century, and the other is the "SS President Cleveland 1947" during the Second World War.

In 1972, he just graduated from Waseda University in Tokyo for a year as a Bachelor of political science and economics. She joined the family business and imported clothing from Pierre Cardin, Givenchy and Levi 's.

"At the very beginning, our family was doing the clothing business, which made me understand this industry quickly."

With his own strength, he became a senior executive in the family business, and finally became president and CEO of the company in 1984.

In the same year, he opened the first UNIQLO store in the southern port city of Hiroshima.

(in fact, the first name was Unique Clothing Warehouse. The name of Uniqlo UNIQLO was adopted the following year.

Over the next few years, he quickly launched an expansion project in Japan, covering UNIQLO's stores to almost every corner of Japan, and embarked on innovative product development, such as Heatteck underwear series.

Today, UNIQLO has become the largest asset of fast retailing group, covering more than 1500 stores worldwide.

As of August this year, the turnover is expected to increase by 15.7% to 1 trillion and 600 billion yen (over 13 billion US dollars).

Although UNIQLO is still lagging behind Inditex, H&M and Gap in scale, Ryui Masami is determined to catch up with them and catch up with all fast fashion retailers.

He said, after all, the size of the world clothing market is now close to 1 trillion US dollars, and the target of fast selling is not unrealistic.

"Everything we do is for the future."

Ryui Masa said that UNIQLO has created stores on all continents, including Europe, North America and Asia, and will soon expand its scale and open new stores.

"I think we will grow fast."

Over the past 11 years, XXX has expanded its diversified brand base through acquisitions to acquire brands including Theory, Helmut Lang, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse Tam Tam and recent J Brand, but all these are too small compared with the size of UNIQLO's assets.

Last year, WWD reported that the company was negotiating a takeover with J.Crew, which finally broke down.

It is expected that Liu did not talk about any potential mergers and acquisitions.

By the end of February, the cash group held cash equivalent to 462 billion 800 million yen (US $3 billion 900 million).

"If I talk about M & A this time, then our company will no longer be able to do M & A activities."

He is very tight lipped about what brand to buy.

But when he talks about other retailers and designers, he is not so secretive.

He said he liked Polo Ralph Lauren, Levi 's, Woolrich and Carhartt, and pointed out that Europe has many good things.

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For other retailers, such as Sears, Kmart, WAL-MART, best buy and Gap, he said he did not catch cold.

"As brands grow older, they will become increasingly outdated."

He said.

"They are not advancing with the times."

He also had a personal view of the designer. Ryui Matsushi Jil Sander, the former UNIQLO partner, praised it highly.

"Although she is not working now, Jil Sander is still the best designer.

I pay her the highest respect.

He said.

The German designer is famous for his special attention to detail. He designed +J series of clothing for UNIQLO from 2009 to 2011.

After she left the company, she briefly ran the brand of the same name. After three quarters, she retired completely.

"She is a perfectionist.

She will do everything herself, and she will never make any mistakes in pursuing any design.

But because of this, we can not meet the delivery date of our plan. "

He laughed.

This answer inevitably extends to the next question, whether they still have contacts since Jil left, and whether he expects to cooperate again in the future.

"No comment."

He laughed more loudly, and the whole office echoed his laughter.

"But cooperation is good for us, and I think it's good for her."

Ryui Matsushi Alexander Wang also appreciated the increase, and in 2008, UNIQLO launched a collaboration with designers.

"I think he may be the best serving designer today."

When asked if he wished to cooperate again, Liu well laughed again, "I hope so."

He expressed interest in future cooperation with other designers, but he did not believe that the designer's self style would affect UNIQLO's own understanding of fashion.

"I don't think so.

We should be stars.

He said.

"People who wear their clothes should be stars.

I think consumers should be the focus of attention from now on, and designers need to work hard to design clothes that people like to wear.

Similarly, people like us who produce and sell clothes should also strive to win the favor of consumers.

Work is definitely the most important rule of survival.

In 2003, he published his autobiography "one win, nine defeats" and won highly praise from his staff.

He usually goes to work at 7 in the morning and leaves at 4 in the afternoon.

Ryui Zheng tried to cultivate a group of new and potential leaders, but it didn't seem to take much time.

"I don't want to retire, or I can't retire.

Because I am the founder of the company, I want to see this company become more successful.

He said.

He has said many times that no suitable successor can take over his job.

He has ruled out the possibility of succession of two sons (Kazumi and Koji Yanai), because he basically repeats his own path.

Kazumi and Koji are currently working in the company, UNIQLO and UNIQLO, respectively, and hold 4.51% respectively.

"I have no intention of getting them to take over the company.

I have always been very sure about this, but everyone is questioning it.

He explained that he might want his son to take office like Chairman and not CEO.

"I think it is more difficult to run a company than to manage a company," he said.

I believe my sons are talented and have good personality. They are as good as other executives, but I still think it is best not to let them become CEO, so that the company can separate ownership from management.

He expressed the hope that the company's top management team, including CEO, would inherit the actual management rights of the company.

Although he did not name the name, fast marketing group top management team includes fast fading brand G.U. CEO Osamu Yunoki, UNIQLO CEO Ning Pan, and purchasing CEO and UNIQLO American and French district CEO Nobuo Domae.

No matter who will win the position in the end, Ryui Masa said the most important thing is that the next leader should not try to imitate his style.

No matter who takes over the post of CEO, I should not imitate my practice.

If they do so, they will fail.

I am the founder, the owner of the company, the chairman, the president and CEO.

That's why I can do anything I want to do, "he said, adding that with the growth of age, more work can be started in the future to the management team.

"Otherwise, I will have to clone one after another."