Fast Retailing moves to aid poor

• Miscellaneous
• 14th July 2010
• YC

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Fast Retailing Co., operator of the Uniqlo clothing chain, will work with microfinance organization Grameen Bank to sell affordable clothing in Bangladesh, executives of the two entities said Tuesday.

Fast Retailing will set up a joint venture in October with a group company of the Bangladeshi fund led by economist and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Locals will be employed to manufacture and market clothing priced at around $1 (89 yen) apiece.

"We have sold our products targeting 800 million people in industrialized countries," Fast Retailing President Tadashi Yanai told a news conference in Tokyo. "But the 4 billion people in the developing world will create a giant market in the future."

The venture, Grameen Uniqlo, will be 99 percent owned by Fast Retailing's wholly owned subsidiary. Grameen's group company will hold the other 1 percent.

Fast Retailing plans to employ 250 people in the first year of business and create 1,500 new jobs within three years, executives said.

Fast Retailing has been producing clothing in Bangladesh, one of Asia's poorest countries with a population of about 158 million, since 2008.

Grameen Bank was founded by Yunus in 1983 to make small loans to poor rural households without collateral.

Fast Retailing is the first large Japanese company to establish ties with the community development bank, executives said.

The company is considering having Grameen loan recipients in rural areas serve as local sales personnel to improve their economic standing and make it easier to pay off their debts.

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201007130404.html