Week In Review: April 1-5, 2013

In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of April 1-5: Shanghai Couture Event Shows Dior Banking On Slower Growth, “Stealth Wealth” Clientele Paris came to Shanghai last Friday evening as Christian Dior presented its Spring-Summer 2013 haute couture collection at Bund 5, its second annual show in the city. Some 300 ultra-VIPs, including a scattering of celebs like actresses Zhang Ziyi, Shu Qi, Sun Li, and Angelababy, were on hand for the show — presented in an intimate setting that re-created Dior’s Paris salon—and the candlelit dinner that followed. Online To Offline: Neiman Marcus Promotes E-Tail With Shanghai Runway Show A little over a year after the Dallas-based luxury retailer Neiman Marcus announced its entrance to the China market via a $28 million investment in Glamour Sales Holdings, and nearly four months after launching its Chinese-language e-commerce site, the company took its online marketing efforts offline this past weekend in Shanghai. Staging its first-ever fashion show in mainland China on the ground floor of Three on the Bund, Neiman made its biggest and most public gesture to what it hopes will become one of its key e-tail markets in the years ahead, despite tough competition and comparatively low name recognition in the country. Chinese Companies Dead Set On Buying Australian, American Wineries Having already snapped up distressed wineries in France and Chile, Chinese state-owned giant COFCO is now setting its eyes even further afield, on wineries in the US as well as Australia’s Barossa Valley. According to China Daily, China Foods Ltd – COFCO’s Hong Kong-listed consumer food arm – hopes to buy “two or three wineries” in the US and Australia, “in a bid to expand its wine sales while fending off competition from surging wine imports.” As China Foods Managing Director Luan Xiuju said at a conference this week in Beijing, the planned acquisitions (“aimed at locally renowned brands”) could be worth at least US$20 million and are slated to roll out over the next two years. Fine Dining In Shanghai Trends Towards Locals Chef & Restaurateur David Laris The Bund, an icon of Shanghai’s rapid development, is not only a premier lifestyle destination, but also the home of some of the best Western dining in the city — and arguably all of China. In a city well-known for a high rate of failure in its food & beverage (F&B) industry, Jing Daily recently asked Fabien Verdier, who has served as Director at many Paul Pairet restaurants, and Pascal Ballot, Marketing Director of Three on the Bund (which houses several Jean Georges imprints, as well as the Whampoa Club and Shanghai Gallery of Art) what keeps their restaurants strong after so many years. W Hotels Launches First Mainland China Property In Guangzhou With parent company Starwood investing heavily in the China market over the past several years — and even moving its CEO there for one month in 2011 — it was only a matter of time before the stylish W Hotels imprint made its way to the Mainland. This past week, with the grand opening of a 317 room property in Guangzhou, W officially launched its long-term China expansion effort, which should see the brand open five locations in mainland China within the next four years.

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Week In Review: April 1-5, 2013