Uniqlo chief gets top job at parent

THE man who launched the Uniqlo casual clothes chain in London last year is to take over the top job at its Japanese retailing giant parent after its founder, Tadashi Yanai, today committed corporate hara-kiri as penance for plunging fortunes.

Weeks after proclaiming the company would continue to expand at home and abroad, including in Britain, Yanai said he would step down as president of Fast Retailing in November. He will be replaced by 39-year-old Genichi Tamatsuka, head of the Uniqlo operation in Britain, who is seen as a potential high-flier in Japan's cut-throat retailing industry.

Yanai, 53, will assume the role of chairman and chief executive, but the handing-over of the top job in the company is seen in Tokyo as an admission that his plans to turn the company around have failed to impress investors.

The company reported that April sales in Japan plunged 47%, as Uniqlo's previous domination of the casual sector continued to erode. The shares plunged almost 9%.

Tamatsuka's plans to up the number of outlets from 12 to 50 within three years remain intact, and last week Fast Retailing tripled its investment in the UK offshoot to £30m.