Williams-Sonoma, Inc. and Hyundai Livart Furniture Co. Ltd Announce Strategic Franchise Agreement
February 13 2017 - 7:17PM
Business Wire
Iconic Home Furnishings Brands to Open First
Stores in South Korea in 2017
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. announced today that it will bring its
family of home furnishings brands to South Korea through a
franchise agreement with Hyundai Livart Furniture Co. Ltd, a
leading Korean furniture manufacturer and distributor. Livart, an
affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group (HDG), will have
exclusive rights to operate stores, shop-in-shops, and e-commerce
for the following brands in the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio:
Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids and West Elm.
“We are pleased to announce our latest strategic global
expansion with our new franchise partner, Livart,” said Laura
Alber, President and Chief Executive Officer of Williams-Sonoma,
Inc. “Livart’s market expertise and extensive retail footprint in
South Korea will enable us to deliver the same high quality of
service that we provide in the United States and around the world.
Livart is the best partner to help bring our brands to the Korean
market.”
"We are honored to help bring Williams-Sonoma, Inc.’s products
and services to South Korea,” said Hwa-Eung Kim, Representative
Director and Chief Executive Officer of Hyundai Livart Furniture
Co. Ltd. “This franchise agreement will help strengthen our
competitive advantage in the domestic premium home furnishings
market by complementing existing Livart brands, and we plan to
leverage our diverse distribution channels to expand strategically
through Seoul and other major cities.”
Over the next 10 years, Livart is expected to open over 30
stores in South Korea across four Williams-Sonoma, Inc. brands. The
first stores scheduled to open this spring include a combined
Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids store (of 924㎡/280 pyeong), a
West Elm store (of 700㎡/212 pyeong) at the Hyundai City Mall Garden
Five Mall, and a Williams Sonoma store (297㎡/90 pyeong) at the HDS
Mokdong branch.
About Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is a specialty retailer of high-quality
products for the home. These products, representing eight distinct
merchandise strategies – Williams Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery
Barn Kids, West Elm, PBteen, Williams Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation,
and Mark and Graham – are marketed through e-commerce websites,
direct mail catalogs and retail stores. Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
currently operates in the United States, Canada, Australia and the
United Kingdom, offers international shipping to customers
worldwide, and has unaffiliated franchisees that operate stores in
the Middle East and the Philippines and stores and e-commerce
websites in Mexico.
About Hyundai Livart
Hyundai Livart, an affiliate of Hyundai Department Store Group,
is a home furnishing company which provides new lifestyles to its
customers in areas of home, office, built-in and diverse areas.
Hyundai Livart's main brands include; Livart, Livart Neoce, Livart
Ismine, Livart Kitchen, Livart Kids, H.Mondo. As described in
Livart's name (Living+Art, Designing the living space through art)
aims to provide its customers every day new life.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that
involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if
they do not fully materialize or prove incorrect, could cause our
results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements
include statements related to the success of our franchise
operations in South Korea and our global expansion strategy. The
risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements include the risk that the anticipated franchise stores
or e-commerce in South Korea do not open on schedule or are not
successful, that the overall franchise operations are not
successful, and that we are not able to continue to execute our
global expansion strategy as planned. These and other risks and
uncertainties are described more fully in our Annual Report on Form
10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2016 and all subsequent
quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. All
forward-looking statements in this press release are based on
information available to us as of the date hereof, and we assume no
obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170213006235/en/
WILLIAMS-SONOMA, INC.Julie P. WhalenEVP, Chief Financial
Officer(415) 616-8524-or-Beth Potillo-MillerSVP, Finance &
Corporate TreasurerInvestor Relations(415) 616-8643
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