Jeweler VC&A sees Japan as retaining luster, confident of sales upturn+

TOKYO, Nov. 3 Kyodo -
Luxury French jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels continues to view Japan as a key
market and is confident that sales will pick up once the economy recovers, its
president and chief executive officer said in a recent interview.
Referring to moves among some high-end foreign brands to rethink their presence
in Japan amid a dwindling appetite for luxury goods, Stanislas de Quercize
said, ''I see brands say now we have to go to China...as our good time in Japan
has passed and the future is in China.''
''We are here when there is a blue sky. We are here when there is a typhoon,''
de Quercize said. ''We are here to stay because we believe (in a) long-term
relationship.''
Companies handling luxury items are struggling in the Japanese market, hit by
the slump in personal consumption amid the recession and the growing popularity
of ''fast-fashion'' brands offering trendy items at cheap prices, like Sweden's
H&M and Japan's Uniqlo.
LVJ Group K.K., the Japanese arm of French luxury brand Louis Vuitton, scrapped
a plan late last year to open the company's largest store in the world in
Tokyo's Ginza shopping district. Italian fashion house Gianni Versace has
recently closed its boutiques in Japan.
The Swiss luxury goods group Richemont, to which Van Cleef & Arpels belongs,
saw sales in Japan fall to 692 million euros (about $1.02 billion) in the year
to March 2009 from 699 million euros in the previous year.
De Quercize is confident, however, that the Japanese market will recover,
noting that his company completed the expansion and renovation of its flagship
store in the Ginza district just three months ago. ''We are bedding for the
future (of Japan),'' he said.
Van Cleef & Arpels jewelry appeared in Japan for the first time in 1973,
distributed by Seibu department stores. The jewelry house opened its first
store in Japan in Ginza in 1999 and now has 15 boutiques in the country. Japan
accounts for one-third of the company's overall sales, he said.
De Quercize denied that Japan is losing its attractiveness for high-end brands
amid a shift in consumer taste to thrifty items.
Citing record sales of the company's bridal jewelry collection this year, de
Quercize said Japan will ''remain a country of connoisseurship'' and that the
company can cultivate demand by offering high-quality products.
In contrast with the rapidly changing designs of fast-fashion houses, de
Quercize stressed the ''eternal, timeless design'' of his company's products
and said this will increase the value of creations by Van Cleef & Arpels.
De Quercize was in Tokyo to launch a global tour of a retrospective exhibition
titled ''The Spirit of Beauty'' at the Mori Arts Center in Tokyo's Roppongi,
which offers an overview of more than 100 years of the jewelry house's
creations.
''It's the first time we're showing all these collections of Van Cleef & Arpels
which was started in 1906,'' he said. ''This is the first time we're showing so
many creations together and the first time we're showing such pieces as a
bracelet from Marlene Dietrich, a bracelet from Jackie Kennedy and a tiara of
Princess Grace.''
The exhibition will run in Tokyo until Jan. 17 and then move on to Beijing, New
York and Paris.
==Kyodo