Mode of Entry

Background of Cath Kidston (489 words)

Cath Kidston is a British retail company mainly selling products with special features and original design. They provide a large variety of products, including house wares, women‘s fashion, kids’ products, etc.  

History and Development

In 1993, Cath Kidston was founded Catherine Isabel Audrey Kidston in London. She started selling vintage fabrics, wallpapers, brightly painted junk furniture with traditional English country house style. Due to the increasing popularity, Cath Kidston increased their variety of products. In 2008, the kids’ line was launched. Cath Kidston expanded rapidly and they have more than 80 shops worldwide in 2012.

Expansion into Asia & Stores Worldwide

In 2006, Cath Kidston Ltd entered Asia and opened its first wholly owned subsidiary in Japan.

In 2010, Catherine Kidston sold a majority stake of the company to private equity investors TA Associates.  She remained to be the company's Creative Director. TA Associates provided large capital to fund the company’s growth in Asia.

In 2011, they continued their expansion in Asia by entering South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. In 2012, Cath Kidston had already opened 31 stores in Asia. Nearly 40% of its stores are located in Asia.

Suppliers

Cath Kidston adopts a policy of granting manufacturing licenses to manufacturers. One example of Cath Kidston’s manufacturers is Shenzhen Inasmile Technology Company Limited, which is shown on photo 1. Currently, a majority of its suppliers are located in Shenzhen, China. Therefore, cities close to Shenzhen have advantage of cheap transportation cost. Details will be reported in the mode of entry part later in this report.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Five key demographics are chosen for segmentation analysis – gender, income, education level, age and level of dependency.

Our targets are female customers, since the patterns are designed for female’s taste. We target in medium to high income customers, since the...