Japanese thrift store operator Komehyo Holdings is accelerating efforts to expand operations abroad by leveraging growing interest in a circular economy aimed at minimizing waste.
The company hopes to become the world's top retailer of secondhand luxury brand items by tripling its overseas sales in four years from around ¥10 billion at present and boosting them to ¥150 billion in the future.
Komehyo started as a clothing vendor after the end of World War II.
Its domestic sales of brand goods, mainly used products from luxury brands, hit a record high of ¥114.3 billion in the fiscal year ending March 2024.
The company opened its first overseas outlet in China in September 2018 and currently operates 21 stores including in Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand. In April this year, Komehyo set up a unit in Hong Kong to oversee its Asia operations.
"We're the only one who is seriously thinking about global expansion" in the industry, said Hideo Takeo, head of Komehyo's overseas operations.
Secondhand stores abroad are in general small and feature items in specific fields while Komehyo handles a wide variety of brand goods, according to Takeo. "We lose in one category, but we can win in total," he said.
Komehyo can also leverage a vast amount of sales data accumulated so far.
It can purchase easy-to-sell products based on its sales data, including those involving visitors to Japan that have been growing rapidly, Takeo said, stressing that the company is "different from shops relying on speculation."
The image of used products has improved especially among young people. A growing number of consumers overseas prefer secondhand products as goods that had previously been loved and cared for.
Takeo expressed an eagerness to expand into North America and Europe.