Fashion retailer plans GCC expansion in 2009

EXPANSION PLAN: Fashion retailer Koton has unveiled growth plans for the GCC. (Getty Images - for illustrative purposes only)

Turkish fashion retailer Koton plans to open eight new stores in the GCC this year and sees the economic downturn as an opportunity, as consumers rein in spending.

The value retailer’s new outlets will be in Dubai, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The majority of its 26 GCC stores are currently in Saudi Arabia.

“Maybe in the second half of 2009 you will see a slight slowdown, but I don’t expect a big effect for the medium term or for the long term.” Chairman Yilmaz Yilmaz told Arabian Business.

To date, consumers in Koton’s home market Turkey have been harder hit than those in the UAE.

But revenue there has kept growing as cost conscious shoppers trade down, according to Yilmaz.

“If customers feel that there is going to be a crisis and they want to trade down, Koton is the best alternative. We see the effect of this in our businesses.”

Still, the value end of the fashion market may not be as resilient has some observers had predicted.

Last month H&M, Europe’s second-largest fashion retailer by revenue, posted a larger-than-expected sales fall of 4 percent on the year in November, at stores open for at least a year.

Also last month, rival Inditex, owner of the Zara, Massimo Dutti and Pull and Bear brands, missed third quarter profit estimates as sales were hit by a shrinking economy in Spain, its home market.

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