Uniqlo The Japanese who wanted to dress up the planet<

He had just turned 25. And the clashes with his father were incessant, behind the checkout of their Ogori Shoji men's suit store, located in the small town of Ube, in the very south of Japan. “We had totally different designs,” recalls Tadashi Yanai today. “He wanted to just run our shops safely. Me, I dreamed of opening lots of them, of trying new things. That evening, after yet another disagreement, his father solemnly hands him the official seal of the company. "He told me that I could try whatever I wanted and that he would be there even if it went wrong," says the 67-year-old boss with a bright smile.

Since then, he has brought Fast Retailing, the fourth largest fashion group on the planet, to the world stage, owner of the brands Uniqlo, GU, Comptoir des Cotonniers, Princesse Tam-Tam and Helmut Lang. Present in 17 countries with some 3,000 stores, it posted, for the fiscal year ended in August 2015, more than 1680 billion yen in sales, or 12.5 billion euros, and 815 million euros in net profit. . Performances that allow the empire to compete with the American Gap and to get closer to the two world leaders in the sector, the Spanish Inditex (Zara, Massimo Dutti...) and the Swedish Hennes & Mauritz (H&M). For the first time since last year, the Uniqlo brand even has more stores internationally than in Japan (890 versus 844).

According to the Forbes ranking, Tadashi Yanai, who controls the company with his family, is now the richest man in the Archipelago, with a net worth of nearly $17 billion. However, when he has lunch with his guests at the French restaurant Azure 45 at the Ritz-Carlton in Tokyo, located in the same tower as the headquarters of Fast Retailing, he does not treat himself to wine. It is rare in society. "His driver doesn't even work every day," we are told. This Monday at the end of March, a public holiday in the country, he is dressed, as often, in Uniqlo. “It's a small cardigan – navy color – from the new Lemaire collection,” he tells his visitors, who have just arrived in his rather simple office. Functional furniture in light wood. On his wrist, a Swatch watch. On the walls, several large black and white photos of New York by Andreas Feininger. A white polo shirt autographed by Australian golfer Adam Scott, one of Uniqlo's star brand ambassadors - a partnership signed a week before his surprise victory at the 2013 Masters. golf course by the sea. His own. He bought, at the end of the 2000s, for 74 million dollars, the Plantation Course and the Bay Course on the island of Maui, in the archipelago of Hawaii, where he allows himself a few short excursions in the year. . He loves golf, to the point of having a small driving range in the garden of his huge property in Shibuya. "I also collect paintings, but I've never been interested in a life of luxury," says the CEO. He is looking for other thrills. Originally, he did not think to test them in the confection.

A young man who dreamed of elsewhere

After growing up in the apartment just above his father's shop, 18-year-old Tadashi Yanai has no desire to take over the family store. He dreams of another life. In the United States maybe. "I was raised in American-occupied Japan," he recalls. In the evening, he is passionate about Disney cartoons or the "Rawhide" series which narrates the adventures of cowboys, with Clint Eastwood: "All the entertainment came from Hollywood and served us wonderful images of the United States." As soon as he can, he leaves his town. Tokyo first. At Waseda University, to study political science and economics. “But I wasn't very serious. I played mah-jong or in pachinkos” - gaming halls equipped with sorts of Japanese slot machines. Then, the Japanese "May 1968" releases him. His university has to temporarily close and he leaves alone for a hundred-day initiatory world tour. America, Western Europe then Turkey, Egypt, India and finally Hong Kong. And big disappointments. “In the United States, people were very dejected. It was the Vietnam War. We felt like we were suffocating. The neighborhoods of the hostels where I slept in New York were not safe. He feels more at home on the roads of Europe and Asia, which bring him back to his university, where he finally obtains his diploma in 1971. It is time to work.

A contact of his father finds him a job at Jusco, a supermarket chain. He only lasted nine months in the kitchen utensil inventory management department, but he still discovered there the meticulous organization of the distribution giants. Codes that he will later want to impose on his father in his shop, where, as a good son, he ends up returning. A bit out of spite. “I was quite obnoxious, I believe, at the time. Six of the employees have even resigned,” admits the boss, renowned for his rigor and his taste for micromanagement which still pushes him to sometimes spend the weekend, on his return from golf, in suburban stores. "I've always had these great ideas..." During his travels, he saw spectacular business models. And he began to take a liking to reading books decoding the successes of Matsushita Electric Industrial, which has since become Panasonic, and Honda Motor. Tadashi Yanai keeps on his desk today a scale model of the HondaJet, the group's first plane, which began marketing last year, sixty-six years after the launch of the manufacturer's first moped, the Dream. "What a long-term vision!" exclaims the creator of Uniqlo. He gets up again to grab one of his other economic bibles from a cupboard. A tired copy of Made in America, the autobiography of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart. "From nowhere, he became number one in the United States."

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The polar fleece revolution

Convinced that he could in turn give birth to a Japanese giant, Tadashi Yanai first opened costume stores, then decided to offer in his stores all kinds of cheap clothes from different brands. It was in June 1984 that he inaugurated his first store in Hiroshima under the Unique Clothing Warehouse brand, whose abbreviation became “Uniqlo”. The franchise should have been called "Uniclo", but a transcription error on an official document decided otherwise. Shops are springing up along provincial roads as the group, whose parent company has taken the name of “Fast Retailing”, is beginning its transformation. Inspired by the models of Gap or Next, which he admired in the West, Tadashi Yanai set in motion, in 1997, a complete vertical integration according to the concept called "SPA" (Specialty Store Retailer of Private Label Apparel). The design of the brand's exclusive collections is up to the designers, their manufacture to subcontractors in China. “Today, we still don't have a factory and we work with a handful of Chinese partners,” explains Yoshihiro Kunii, production manager at Fast Retailing. “We favor this relationship of loyalty and, when we produce in Indonesia or Vietnam, it is always in workshops controlled by these Chinese suppliers”, details the executive.

Feeling finally ready, Tadashi Yanai began his conquest of Tokyo in 1998 in the trendy district of Harajuku, celebrated - among others - by the singer Gwen Stefani. Advertising campaigns are launched on television. And a product is staged to appeal to all audiences. "It was our fleece jackets that fueled the first boom," says Aldo Liguori, communications director at Fast Retailing. With a new polyester fiber, Uniqlo is revolutionizing a garment that is usually thick and expensive, reserved for mountain fans. Suddenly, the fleece jacket becomes light and affordable. That year, the group sold 2 million in the Archipelago and discovered a new identity. "We are not a fashion group but a developer of technologies for everyone," theorized Tadashi Yanai. The formula is now in all meetings. Unlike the tenors of “fast-fashion”, Zara or H & M, which produce, each season, in a record schedule, more than 30,000 distinct references in small volumes to stick to fashion, Uniqlo decides to build a limited catalog of products. Its gigantic orders for the same reference, sold for several quarters, allow it to obtain reasonable prices on quality products. “We're not pushing a particular look. We want to provide everyone with the elements that will best meet their daily needs. This is the principle of LifeWear”, explains Aldo Liguori. “We try to make friendly clothes, that is to say that we can keep, appropriate. There is also this very important idea of ​​timelessness for Uniqlo”, completed, a few weeks ago, the Frenchman Christophe Lemaire, in a video presentation of his latest collection for the brand. When he briefs his creators, Tadashi Yanai evokes the inspiration of Steve Jobs in the process of creating the iPhone. A pure and perfect product, detached from the contingencies of fashion, which imposed itself naturally.

A lab to test innovative fibers

A large part of this transformation from Uniqlo to the Apple of clothing is being played out in the suburbs of Kyoto, at Toray Industries, a specialist in composite materials. It is in a workshop close to the factory where the carbon fiber for the wings of the Boeing 787 is produced that, since 2002, engineers, called upon by Fast Retailing, have been inventing the textiles of the future. “At the time, all bands used cotton for underwear. It was unavoidable,” recalls Tetsuo Horino, a Toray executive. "But we started to test new fibers of rayon or even polyurethane together and, after more than a year of testing, we released the first Heattech fabric, which absorbs sweat better and even generates heat." Underwear made in this way is tested in Toray's Technorama, an airtight room where extreme weather conditions are reproduced. Engineers dressed in Heattech products are subjected, as they walk on a treadmill, to high heat, humidity and extreme cold to study the evolution of their body temperature and prove the effectiveness of this new fabric. “We were going to be able to face the cold without accumulating layers of clothes”, explains Yoshihiro Kunii, of Fast Retailing, who recalls that the product has since ceased to evolve. The group finally holds one of these “useful innovations” dreamed up by Tadashi Yanai.

America still resists

Uniqlo today sells 350 different types of Heattech products. This range and the Airism underwear available for warm periods have driven a large part of the group's growth internationally. Especially in China and South Korea, where the winters are harsh and the summers sweltering. “The potential is enormous. In some Chinese megacities, there is still only one Uniqlo,” points out Oliver Matthew, an analyst at CLSA. In China, the group already operates 436 stores and opens 50 more per year. “Across Asia, the group benefits from the strength of the Japan brand. A very solid reputation that we do not necessarily find in the West. Other continents still resist the Uniqlo model. His first steps abroad were also very laborious. Wanting to first conquer the British market, the group opened a store in London in 2001, then 21 other stores. Two years later, it closes 16, wrung out by losses. “Our big mistake was trying to do things the English way rather than capitalizing on our strengths,” Tadashi Yanai later analyzed. The entry into China, in 2002, is also very chaotic. “We also wanted to adapt too much to the Chinese market, with much lower prices, taking into account local incomes. It was a mistake. Uniqlo has a Japanese identity. Nobody wanted a Chinese Uniqlo!”, the CEO later wrote.

Getting started in the United States is even more difficult. In 2005, the company decided to close, after only a few months of operation, the first three stores inaugurated in malls in New Jersey. “Nobody knew us”, explain the executives, who then bet, at the end of the 2000s, on the opening of spectacular stores in New York, in particular on Fifth Avenue, to build the image of the brand and relaunch the American adventure. Without much success so far. Last year, Uniqlo again recorded losses across the Atlantic and had to suddenly revise downwards its rate of store openings in the country. "They're in an ultra-competitive market where several competitors are already offering good basic clothing at attractive prices," says independent analyst Janet Kloppenburg. “And their approach confuses American consumers a little,” suggests the expert, who points to the gigantism and the coldness of the Uniqlo stores. "They don't tell any stories."

A goal, to become a world leader

Throughout the world, the group wants to offer this same refined experience with impeccable service. Each boutique manager is also sent to Japan for six months, to the company's training center, to be introduced to Uniqlo codes and methods. On his return, he must teach his teams to impeccably fold the T-shirts on shelves lined with chalk. At the checkout, the employee learns the ideal forms of politeness, displays a permanent smile and always holds out the bill with both hands.

Despite the difficulties, Tadashi Yanai does not give up on the conquest of America. "I am determined to succeed," says the CEO. Because the group needs to grow in the United States and in emerging Asian countries, where its prices remain high for the general public, if it wants to achieve its ultimate goal: to establish itself as the world number one. Despite the doubtful smiles of analysts, the leader has been hammering for years that he wants to reach 5000 billion yen (40 billion euros) in sales by 2020. And the latest disappointing quarterly results (winter mildness, currency effects) will not deviate from this objective. “Failing is not really important, what matters is learning from your failures and then succeeding”, assures the businessman in an essay written for McKinsey on the future of Japan and its businesses, which he finds too timid. “The Japanese are very strong in their home market but terribly weak away from home,” regrets the CEO. He is worried about the pusillanimity of Japanese youth, who are increasingly reluctant to venture abroad. And criticizes Japanese companies, managed by consensus, for no longer daring to take the slightest innovative initiative. “We lost the spirit that inhabited us after the war, when Japan emerged from a situation where it no longer had anything. Perhaps because we have the illusion of being rich and superior,” fears the billionaire, who hopes to inspire young entrepreneurs. At the very end of the eight-page e-mail he sent on January 1, at 12:01 a.m., to all his employees, Tadashi Yanai concluded with a passage from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. “Nothing is like the dream to engender the future.”