Published on: Monday, June 09, 2008 |
Kota Kinabalu: Daiso, one the major players in the "One Yen store" phenomenon or commonly known as "Hyakkin" in Japan opened its first branch in Malaysia at the 1Borneo Hypermall, on Saturday.
The Japanese home products supplier offers a wide range from household items to cosmetic and home d}cor at an uniform price of only RM5, hence its tagline "Always RM5".
The store here is a run via franchise by Christine Ker, who decided to open one here having seen the success of Daiso in Japan, which already has about 2,500 stores there.
Ker said whenever in Japan, she always shops at Daiso stores as it offers quality products at a very reasonable price.She said her decision to open the first Daiso store in Malaysia in Sabah was because of potential for the store to grow.
She said 1Borneo was poised to become a major attraction for shopping as well as tourists and the store would surely benefit from this.
According to Tomoaki Fujimura, Daiso's Manager for Overseas Department, there are plans to open branches in other states including Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Johor.
In the Southeast Asia region, Daiso has stores in Thailand, Singapore as well as Indonesia.
He said that in the early days, there were concerns surrounding the quality and stable supply of products but customers' perspective has changed and as a result the Daiso management has constantly improved on quality to meet customers' needs.
He said all products sold in Daiso are developed internally (private brand) and in addition to focussing on quality, Daiso also takes a strict approach to the development of the design, packaging and other aspects.These measures in someway contribute in maintaining the price of Daiso products, he added.
With three distribution centres in Japan and new ones currently being established in China and Thailand, Daiso is also aiming to create an efficient distribution and logistic system to serve its more than 3, 000 stores in 22 countries.
