Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing posts 34% jump in Q1 profit on strong demand

Japanese apparel brand Uniqlo reported a sharp rise in profit for the first quarter, driven by strong domestic sales and continued expansion in overseas markets, according to a Reuters report.

Fast Retailing, Uniqlo’s parent company, posted a 34% year-on-year increase in operating profit to ¥205.6 billion ($1.3 billion) for the three months ended November, helped by robust demand in Japan and steady growth in Europe and North America.

Profit from the company’s domestic business rose 20.6% from a year earlier, supported by buoyant sales of sweatshirts and warm innerwear as colder weather boosted demand.

Founded by billionaire Tadashi Yanai, Fast Retailing generates about $22.9 billion in annual revenue from operations across more than two dozen countries. Yanai has previously said he aims to triple the company’s sales in the coming years, seeking to overtake Spain’s Inditex SA, the owner of Zara, currently the world’s largest apparel retailer by revenue.

Over the past four decades, Uniqlo has built a streamlined retail model centred on minimalist design and a tightly controlled supply chain, enabling it to scale rapidly across global markets. Today, the brand operates in 26 markets, trailing only Inditex in global apparel sales.

According to a Bloomberg report, Fast Retailing emerged later than Japan’s traditional retail conglomerates, growing out of Yanai’s father’s menswear shop in Ube, a former coal-mining town in western Japan. After briefly working as a salaried employee in the 1970s, Yanai returned home and, sensing an opportunity in casual wear, opened the first Unique Clothing Warehouse store in Hiroshima in the 1980s. The store proved an instant success, with customers lining up before opening hours.

In its early years, the company stocked multiple brands, but Yanai later pivoted to a private-label model after identifying opportunities to source low-cost apparel directly from manufacturers—an approach popularised by US retailer Gap Inc. Uniqlo subsequently expanded across Japan and into the rest of Asia, before pushing into Western markets.

In India, Uniqlo is increasing local sourcing to 30% from the current 15–16%, as it deepens its presence in the country. The company’s India revenues crossed ₹1,000 crore in FY25. Uniqlo currently operates 16 stores in India, with its latest outlet opening in Bengaluru in August 2025.

Uniqlo entered the Indian market in October 2019 and has since expanded its footprint, with the highest concentration of stores in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow and Chandigarh. It opened its first Mumbai store in 2023.