Giordano, International Limited is a Hong Kong retailer of men’s, women’s and children’s quality apparel founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lai. Giordano has become a pioneer of customer service in the Asia-Pacific region and, as of January 2008, currently employs more than 11,000 people and operates 1800 stores worldwide in 40 countries.
liquidation closeoutsAs of 1996, Jimmy Lai no longer owns the company and its current Chairman and CEO is Peter Lau Kwok Kwen, a Chinese-Canadian. Although based in Bermuda the company’s principal global operations run out of Hong Kong[19]. The company is Asia-Pacific’s most successful retailer and sells its name under the brands of “Giordano”, “Giordano Concepts”, “Giordano Junior” and “Giordano Ladies”[20][21]. Giordano has been publicly listed since 1991 and since then trades on the Hong Kong stock exchange under the ticker symbol 709.HK[22].
Giordano’s success is measured by the company’s relentless focus on its five corporate business values of quality, knowledge, innovation, simplicity and service[23]. The company has its own apparel manufacturing division where many of its own clothing styles are produced[24]. Giordano is also renowned for its basic and practical men’s, women’s, and children’s T-shirts and trousers, especially denims. In comparison, Giordano is very similar to the American based retailer The Gap.
Lai Chee Ying, Jimmy Lai in English, was born into poverty in mainland China’s Guandong Province in 1948. At the age of 12 Lai was smuggled by his family into Hong Kong which at the time was still under British colonial control. Through relatives Lai easily managed to ascertain work at a local textile factory and by the age of twenty had succeeded in becoming the company’s General Manager. With his first end of year bonus of $1000 dollars, along with all his life savings, Lai decided to trade on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The gamble, although risky proved fortuitous and Lai turned his measly original $3000 investment into approximately $40,000 dollars. With that money Lai bought out the owners of the bankrupt garment company of Comitex in 1975 and began manufacturing sweaters. The company was an overnight success and had exports to major American retail brands of J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward and several others. It was during this time that Lai made several trips to the United States. It was during his time there that he was exposed to many western retail formats which inspired him to get into the retail market himself. In 1981 Lai founded Giordano (named after a favourite New York restaurant) and opened several stores across Hong Kong.
Although presently a highly successful international retailing company, Giordano’s first beginnings were ominous. Jimmy Lai originally intended for the company to target the upscale Hong Kong market, it proved unsuccessful, and soon afterwards the company was faced with closing down all over Hong Kong. However, instead of shutting down Lai turned to other successful retailers of the day for inspiration, and proceeded to transform the company. Soon Lai developed a new company formula. By drawing upon ideas from many already successful international retailing brands such as McDonald’s, United Colours of Benetton and Marks and Spencer, Lai created a new Giordano which focused on simple and basic high quality styles, in many colours and sold at reasonable prices. The massive make-over included the company’s approach to customer service and consequently Lai had all employees taught to emphasize the importance of the customer. The formula was successful and by the early 1990s Giordano had 200 stores across mainland China and Hong Kong. Other stores soon followed in the Middle East, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Mainstream Giordano brand focusing on quality apparel for men and women. Present in all markets in which Giordano International Limited operates. The brand’s goal is to be appealing to the everyday shopper, anywhere at anytime. The brand boast seasonal exclusive and innovative casual styles in many colours. Along with seasonal launches, the brand also gives customers access to basic and simple unisex tees and polos as well as a large range of bottoms in a variety of fabrics, including cotton, linen and denim. The brand was the company’s first and consequently possesses a more extensive worldwide network of stores than any other Giordano brand. Giordano is the only international brand that is, for the time being, internationally franchised by Giordano International Limited, the other Giordano brands are all fully owned by the company.
A more upmarket brand of Giordano casual attire with a high emphasis on its own “less is more” retail approach. The brand focuses on the idea that less is more than just more, but that is cool as well. The brand’s said “less is cool” approach involves innovative and modern black, white and grey monochromes in a large variety of styles. The approach gives the brand a very upmarket causal clothes attitude, very much on par with other international brands Polo Ralph Lauren and Lacoste. The Concepts range is significantly more exclusive than mainstream Giordano, as such Giordano Concepts only extends itself to the Asia Pacific market, in particular Hong Kong, China, Taiwan and only one store in both Singapore and Malaysia.
A more affordable brand of Giordano causal clothes for the budget conscious shopper. Prominent in most countries in which Giordano operates. Giordano Bluestar Exchange was rebranded by the company in early April last year. The original aim of the brand was to make Giordano more appealing to the budget conscious shopper. However, after nearly 6 months of planning last year the company revealed the new BSX brand with the opening of its first store in Lung Cheung Mall in Hong Kong. The target of the change was to make Bluestar Exchange, now BSX, into a brand more appealing to the young and to those young at heart. The brand’s new direction involves simplifying everything and offering new designs and styles to give BSX an edgy and urban attitude. Giordano hired relatively new company !TH!NK to head the marketing of the new BSX with hopes that a new fresh company could provide an original out of the box approach to promoting the brand.
Giordano, since its conception has always been intimately committed to the communities in which it conducts business. The company has been progressively dedicated to being a successful and responsible corporate citizen in all regions of operation. This means not only delivering quality products and quality service to their customers but also having a positive influence to the customers community as well. The company’s achieves this by supporting a myriad of charitable organizations and causes as well as doing much of its sourcing in local areas, a move that has helped it avoid damaging currency swings in the past. The environmentally conscious company always performs business through means safe and beneficial to the environment. Giordano was actively involved in distributing clothes to the victims of the Boxing Day Earthquake and the consequent tsunami.
While the company actively supports local communities it also believes strongly in making the workplace environment productive as possible for its 11,000 employees worldwide. The company’s social responsibility is not only limited to its local communities and employees but also the companies and corporations in which Giordano conducts its business.
Giordano made its move to the Middle-East in 1993 with the opening of its flagship store in The BurJuman[1] in Dubai[25] The movement was a joint venture between Giordano International Limited and The Emirates Trading Agency[2] (ETA) of Dubai[26]. Today Giordano boasts 150 stores across 25 nations in the Middle-East and Eastern Europe[27]. Giordano International Limited is the majority shareholder in Giordano Middle-East, holding 20% of the company[28] . All regional operations for Giordano Middle-East run out of its Dubai head office in the
United Arab Emirates.
Giordano Australia opened up in 1999 with its first store in Melbourne’s Westfield Doncaster shopping centre. The company rapidly expanded across Australia and presently operates 61 stores across 4 of the nations 6 states including Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, including one store in Canberra. As of 2008 the company no long sells Bluestar or Giordano Junior through any of its stores.