Uniqlo's same store sales slip 4.8% in July

Same-store sales contracted year on year in July as typhoons, heavy rain and generally unstable weather knocked the number of customer visits below the previous year's level.

UNIQLO Japan is the nation's largest apparel retail chain with a 5.5% share of the ¥10.7 trillion Japanese apparel market, and a network of 853 stores at end of August 2013 generating annual net sales of over ¥683.3 billion.

The first UNIQLO casualwear store opened in Hiroshima City in western Japan in 1984. The subsequent opening of multiple suburban roadside stores brought rapid growth, culminating in the 1998 fleece apparel campaign which sparked a UNIQLO boom throughout Japan.

UNIQLO Japan then experienced a period of falling sales and profits, but performance recovered thanks to a determined focus and expansion of women wear.

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