APAC omni brand curator Bluebell Group officially entered the Australian market with its key fashion brand partners Gentle Monster and Pinko.
The brand opened Italian contemporary fashion brand Pinko in Westfield Sydney in November 2022, followed by the opening of Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster at Sydney airport in the same month.
The Gentle Monster store is the first for the brand in the Southern Hemisphere, and is located in T1 International terminal’s new luxury precinct.
The new store includes a giant head in the centre of the store, which is a large kinetic installation that has purposefully indecipherable facial expressions.
The new Pinko store harnesses its Italian brand identity, offering womenswear, bags and accessories.
Today, Bluebell Group operates in ten markets across the APAC region, and reportedly has the largest retail distributor and network in the region.
Following the two new store openings, Bluebell Australia said it has larger plans in store for 2023. The team is planning to expand the current in-market brand partners’ presence to more locations in the country, and is also planning to launch other brand partners, which the Group already works within the APAC region, in the Australian market.
Bluebell South East Asia & Australia MD Nelly Ngadiman said the new doors in Australia is a milestone for the group as it extends its footprint from Japan down into the Southern Hemisphere.
“I am so pleased that our entrepreneurial spirit and our focus on retail excellence has paid off and is being recognized by our brand partners, who have given us their trust to expand their footprints into this new market,” Ngadiman said. “We look forward to bringing Australian consumers more exciting new lifestyle concepts in the coming years.”
Bluebell Group has pioneered brand building within Asia since 1954. It is present in Japan, South Korea, Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Macau SAR, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Australia.
The Group’s distribution network includes flagship stores, shop-in-shops, counters, its own multi-brand concepts, as well as a highly selective wholesale network, together with both direct ecommerce and marketplaces, covering both domestic and Travel Retail.
The Group operates across multiple product categories, including accessories, footwear, apparel, fragrance, beauty, gourmet, jewellery, watches, liquor and tobacco.
Travel retail operator Bluebell Korea has more than 2,200 employees, representing more than 50 brand partners in over 350 POS across the country.
Bluebell Group is a family-owned business and has over 3,500 staff, 600 points-of-sale, with a reported turnover of US$2 billion.