Editor’s Note
This article reports on a potential Louis Vuitton store closure in Hong Kong’s Times Square, citing a rent dispute with the mall’s owner. The original report from the South China Morning Post also noted the location’s history as a protest site. We present this as a business development within the luxury retail sector.
Hong Kong – The French luxury giant LVMH is considering closing a Louis Vuitton store located in a high-end Hong Kong shopping mall that has been regularly targeted by pro-democracy protesters, according to a Hong Kong newspaper.
LVMH plans this closure after Wharf Real Estate Investment Corporation, the owner of the Times Square mall in the Causeway Bay shopping district, refused to lower the store’s rent amount, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday.
This store, which spans approximately 10,000 square meters on the mall’s second floor, is one of eight stores that Vuitton owns in Hong Kong.
The monthly rent is estimated to be around 5 million Hong Kong dollars (575,990 euros), according to consultants.
Louis Vuitton Hong Kong, Times Square, and Wharf did not wish to respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
The news of this potential closure comes after the Hong Kong government published the latest figures concerning retail trade.
It recorded its tenth consecutive monthly decline in November, a drop of more than 23 percent compared to the previous year.
Jewelry, watches, clocks, and luxury gifts are the most affected category, with a 43.5 percent year-on-year fall.
The Hong Kong executive blames the pro-democracy protests, which have regularly degenerated into violent clashes between police and protesters, for the decline in tourist traffic and consumer desire.
Times Square mall has regularly been the target of gatherings called “Shop With You” during which protesters assembled to chant slogans and march to force stores to close and thus exert economic pressure on the government.
In the third quarter, LVMH recorded overall performance better than expected but a 25 percent drop in its sales in Hong Kong.
In the former British colony, luxury brands heavily depend on a significant influx of Chinese tourists.
According to the latest figures published by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, only 2.65 million people visited Hong Kong in November 2019, a decrease of 56 percent compared to the same period last year.
Born in June from a project to allow extraditions to mainland China, since abandoned, the protest movement then expanded to denounce the control exercised by Beijing.