KATE SPADE NEW YORK ANNOUNCES ENTRANCE INTO MIDDLE EAST

First regional store opens in Kuwait

Kuwait, March 8, 2012: kate spade new york announces a new distribution partnership with Jashanmal Group in the Middle East with the opening of its first store in the region. The partnership deal will involve exclusive distribution for the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain and will include women’s ready to wear, handbags, small leather goods, fashion accessories and jewelry in both wholesale and retail points of sale.

The first kate spade new york store opening took place at the 360 Mall in Kuwait on March 8, 2012. This will be followed by a store opening at the Dubai Mall in mid April.  Both locations will carry the full lifestyle offering of product. There are plans to expand into other territories in the region in 2012 and 13 with multiple retail stores and several shop-in-shops.

Craig Leavitt, CEO of kate spade new york said; “We are confident that the Middle East market will be a key growth area for us, and intend to have a meaningful presence in the region, opening in three new markets in the months ahead. We are excited about our distribution partnership with the Jashanmal Group as they have a proven track record of strong brand management and aggressive growth plans. We feel certain that our product - with its spirited, chic and colorful DNA will resonate with the Middle Eastern consumer, and will excite her as an accessible luxury lifestyle brand. This launch coincides closely with our expansion into Europe, having opened two stores in London last fall, as we recognize the importance of traffic moving between these two markets.” 

Tony Jashanmal, Group Executive Director added; “We are delighted to announce our association with kate spade new york which is one of the fastest growing brands in the US.  We are confident that this is an excellent addition to our portfolio of accessible luxury lifestyle brands and we are sure that it will offer our consumers an unparalleled sophisticated shopping experience.”

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For further information please contact:

Catherine Tracey, Senior Account Manager - DABO & CO

Email: catherine.t@daboandco.com 

Tel: 00 971 4 3444901

Notes to the Editors:

about kate spade new york

In 1993, kate spade designed the utilitarian bag she’d been craving for years but couldn’t find anywhere and so began a revolution in the accessories market. simple silhouettes with clever details and crisp palettes soon established a visual shorthand for the brand that’s recognizable the world over. In 2007, kate spade turned the reigns over to design powerhouse Liz Claiborne, Inc. and Deborah Lloyd, formerly of Banana Republic and Burberry, took the helm as creative director and co-president with an aim to broadening the line while honoring kate’s rich history. Today you’ll find the brand on the arms of women everywhere – with 36 retail shops, a thriving e-commerce business, 89 locations in Asia, a new flagship in Brazil and distribution in more than 400 doors worldwide.

www.katespade.com

About Jashanmal Group:

Founded in 1919, the Jashanmal Group today is a corporation with multi-channel activities in the GCC and India with headquarters in the UAE. The retail division operates over 100 stores in 5 countries and a thriving distribution and wholesale division supplies a network of over 1,000 points of sale everyday in segments ranging from travel retail to mass and mid-market outlets to high-end retailers with a diverse product group that includes: home appliances, luggage, tobacco, print media and writing instruments.

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Jashanmal has operated the Bally stores in Kuwait for many years and recently extended their franchise agreement to include the UAE and other markets.

The first store under this new agreement has opened in Dubai's Mirdif City Centre and will be followed by a formal opening event in the near future.

As part of a recently signed franchise agreement Jashanmal has opened the first LK Bennett store east of Paris in Dubai's Mirdif City Centre.

"We have a lot of customers in the UK who are Emirati so we know that our products appeal here," says Robert Bensoussan, the chairman of LK Bennett. "We also have a lot of customers buying our bags and the clothing, so we believe there is a good client-base, plus we have a fantastic relationship of price to quality and that's what counts."

The successful opening event was attended by members of the UAE fashion press, fashion bloggers and VIP customers.

It is the first of several stores planned in the region with future locations ear-marked in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait.

Jashanmal have unveiled their new look department store in the Dubai Festival City. The 16,000 sq. ft. store takes the Jashanmal shopping experience to a new level. The fully refreshed store concept has been designed to give customers more choice, more brands and more pleasure.

The store caters to the increasingly sophisticated taste of the Dubai consumer. Jashanmal offers world famous brands for the home, fashion, gifts, appliances, luggage and much more. And for the first time in the Middle East - 'Cook and Coffee', a dedicated area for live demos on cookery where shoppers can interact with visiting Chefs and celebrities.

"This is the first of the new style Jashanmal Department Stores to open in the UAE. It reaffirms our commitment to the Dubai retail environment. Dubai Festival City is a mall that has shown good solid growth in recent years and we believe it is the right place to be," said Peter McElwaine, Group President and CEO of Jashanmal. "The opening of this store is part of an aggressive retail expansion strategy by the Group," he added.

"Today's consumers are migrating to brands that have a higher ethic and purpose. They are constantly connected. We have tailored our new concept store to provide a shopping experience to meet their expectations," according to Rajiv Suri, Group CEO (Retail). "Come and visit the store. You will be pleasantly surprised."

"Jashanmal have been delivering quality service and products to the region over the last 90 years. We have created, after much research, a store concept that will cater to the needs of today's enlightened shopper. This is an evolutionary step to make our stores more friendly, contemporary and easy to shop in. In time we shall roll out this new concept across our network in the region," affirmed Tony Jashanmal, Group Executive Director.

The new Jashanmal store in Dubai Festival City is located at the North Oval on the first floor of Festival Centre.

What's so new about it?

First, the name: we're calling it Jashanmalbooks.com to make the link with our website explicit and by extension acknowledging that bookstores need to become part of the 21st Century.

Second, the size: Just over 100 square metres - we believe that large bookstores are no longer sustainable so we're trying out this new store size and format.

The look and feel is also a departure from traditional bookstores: High impact graphics, a fresh store environment and uncluttered presentation with an emphasis on displaying books front facing so that the whole cover is visible - graphic designers put a lot of work into these covers so we think that you should, in fact, judge a book by its cover.

Naturally this means we've got room for less books so the merchandising focus is on having a wide range of categories featuring just the latest and greatest titles. For older and more specialized titles you can always visit ouronline store where we've got over 5,000 titles listed.

Our core philosophy is that bookstores are places where people go to discover cultural entertainment so we've expanded our product range beyond books and magazines to include a careful selection of DVDs, educational toys from Leapfrog that help parents teach their kids how to read and tablets, ereaders and media players from brands like Sony and Samsung with more cool stuff coming soon.

One innovation we've introduced to making the shopping expereince a more comfortable one is that our sales team is equipped with handheld scanners so that they can ring up the sale on the shopfloor itself while customers continue to browse - imagine you've got a stack of books you're flipping through while seated in one of the super-comfy chairs, instead of having to carry them to the cash till one of our sales associates will come over to you, scan the books you want to buy on the spot and finish up the sale all without you having to leave the comfort of the chair or disrupting your browsing experience.

Lastly, we want visitors to our store to be connected so that they can continue their search for knowledge online. Like all of our stores we've got totally free, high-speed Wi-Fi access - no purchase necessary.

So please check out the store and let us know what you think in the comments below, on our Facebook page or on Twitter or by dropping us an email.

In case you don't know how to get there, here's a map to Al Ghurair City.

Group Executive Director Tony Jashanmal interviewed by Tom Urquhart on The Bigger Picture.

• Part 1: General Business Trends in the GCC Region
• Part 2: Family Business
• Part 3: 7 Questions

(source: Khaleej Times)

ABU DHABI — Indian businessman in the UAE, Mohan Jashanmal, has been selected for the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman 2011 and will be honoured on Friday in New Delhi at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD).

Jashanmal, Regional Manager of the Jashanmal National Company (Abu Dhabi) and Chairman of the Indian Business and Professional Group, will leave for New Delhi tonight to receive the prestigious award from Indian President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

The Indian Government confers this award to Indians living abroad for bridging the cultural gap, furthering brotherly relations, promoting trade and commerce and rendering services to the Indian community in the countries they live.

Jashanmal has been selected for this award for his continued efforts for the promotion of cultural and traditional relations between India and the UAE. Talking to Khaleej Times on Wednesday, Jashanmal said: “Eleven people from the Indian diaspora abroad have been selected for the Samman (honour). I have been elected from the UAE.”

He said: “This is a very prestigious samman from the Indian Government to expatriates living abroad, which has been conferred on me. I feel very honoured to receive it from the President.”

Among his prominent community services is the Abu Dhabi Indian School, which is a premier community school in the Gulf, which came into being in the year 1971. The school began functioning in 1975 from the premises of the India Social Centre, to cater to the needs of the children of the Indian community in Abu Dhabi.

Today the Jashanmal Group has launched its new corporate website as part of an ongoing, multi-channel communications strategy.

Senior management within the group recognized the need for an up-to-date site, "A corporate website is a company's face in the digital world in which we increasingly live in." said Tony Jashanmal, Group Executive Director.

The site provides existing and potential business partners as well as press and the general public a comprehensive overview of the group's activities.

The site features a careers section that shows available positions within the various group companies and allows job seekers to upload their CVs and apply on-line. 

A comprehensive media centre consolidates previous press coverage, brand communication, presentations with regularly updated news and press release feeds.

A store locator features a Google map based interface that makes it easy to find the locations of the groups various stores in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The website was designed and developed in-house.