Leathergoods house, Furla, has opened two new duty free and travel retail units in Asia: an 84sq m boutique in Yangon International Airport in Myanmar and a small corner of 5sq m in Kaohsiung International Airport in Taiwan.

The Yangon store opened this month in partnership with Singapore Myanmar Investco (SMI) featuring Furla’s Autumn/Winter 2016 collection. Yangon is the busiest and largest airport of Myanmar. At the end of August, the Italian brand also opened its personalised corner in Kaohsiung Airport in partnership with Everrich.

The openings follow a string of other DF&TR locations in Asia Pacific which include Siem Reap, Nagoya, Shenzhen and Sydney.

DF&TR OUTPERFORMS COMPANY

Furla’s DF&TR sales have outperformed the company as a whole in the first half of 2016.  The channel registered a +38% increase in turnover from 223 POS in 52 countries, against the overall company growth of +28% to €194m/$218m.

Japan continues to be the strongest market for Furla, representing 26% of total sales in H1 with a +30% increase, just as in the US. In Europe, sales excluding Italy [that alone saw a +34% increase in sales] rose by +26%. Asia Pacific was weakest, increasing by +22%, and equal to almost +20% of total sales for the group.

Alberto Camerlengo, Furla Group General Manager, says: “Furla continues to grow exponentially both geographically and across the different product categories.”

By the end of the first half of 2016, Furla Group had 425 mono-brand stores, up from the 415 units at the end of 2015. Around half of these are property and franchising POS. Counting multi-brand and department stores, Furla is present in more than 1,200 other locations worldwide and in more than 100 countries.

The company aims to open new domestic market stores in London (Brompton Road) and in Paris (Rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré) by the end of the year.

At the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes next week, Furla will show its new Spring/Summer 2017 range. Gerry Munday, Furla’s Global Travel Retail Director, comments: “I never fail to be surprised by each new Furla collection. I’m particularly pleased with this season’s travel exclusive, Erica, which is a gorgeous bag. The success of our previous exclusives is proof that consumers are really keen to discover lines that are not available on the High Street.”