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Naf Naf appoints Amanda Hu as CEO China, targets 500 stores in the country
French womenswear retailer Naf Naf, now owned by Chinese group La Chapelle, is building an organisation to enter the huge Chinese market, where Naf Naf isn’t yet present, and has hired Amanda Hu as its CEO China.
The fashion retailer, which was previously owned by French group Vivarte, will from now on operate under a double stewardship in China and France, with Luc Mory remaining also as CEO in France.
“Our brand strategy will always be developed in Paris, with local adaptations in China, and I will have a supervisory role from France. We won’t deploy a French-only management team [in China], a mistake some have made. We must leave China to the Chinese,” said Mory in an interview with FashionNetwork.com a few days ago.
Amanda Hu is a Chinese retail expert, and has worn several different hats since starting her career in 1999. Until 2002, she was a product manager at Cisco in China, then she worked as a marketing consultant for consulting firm Roland Berger between 2002 and 2005. She then joined the Nokia telecommunications group, as product manager and consultant. From 2008, Amanda Hu worked for furniture group Red Star Macallin in various capacities, eventually as vice-president. In the last 10 years, Red Star Macallin reached a significant milestone, growing from 40 to 262 stores (for a total of 15 million square metres), the majority of them franchised.
La Chapelle wants Naf Naf to be distributed via 500 stores in China within the next five years, including shop-in-shops, monobrand stores and a presence in multibrand retailers. The first Naf Naf products will be available in China with the summer 2019 collection. Thanks to this expansion, and a strengthening of the brand’s European presence (with a target of 100 new stores), Naf Naf’s goal is to double its annual revenue – currently at €210 million - by 2023.
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