The commercial centre operated by JSWB (JiSheng Wellborn) – a leading company in the distribution of upscale furniture in China – was chosen by Pikolin, a firm based in Aragon, as the perfect place to open its first shop in China.
The 200 m sq Pikolin shop in this prestigious shopping centre is on a floor devoted to leisure-related products. Other major firms from around the world selling deluxe furniture and design also have stores in the shopping centre. Like Pikolin, they have decided to put down roots in the Asian country, attracted by its new, emerging elite consumer base hungering for foreign goods.
This new venture has seen Pikolin form a fruitful relationship with the local business Luolai which has over 2,000 shops up and down China. Luolai, a very respected brand for bedlinen and other types of linen for the home, is in the Asia-Pacific region. During the opening ceremony which took place on April 30, Borja Solans, grandson of Pikolin’s founder and son of the current company president, stated that the special affinity between the goods which Luolai makes and distributes and those of Pikolin make the former the ‘ideal’ partner for the Spanish company as it makes its first foray into this new complex and competitive foreign market.
All the products Pikolin sells in China are made in their entirety in its workshops in Zaragoza, where the company has the biggest mattress factory in Europe, which has over 1,000 employees.
Pikolin’s slogan in its European markets is ‘Despierta tu salud’ (literally, ‘Wake up your health’), meaning that the company enhances people’s wellbeing and quality of life, as implied by the fact that one sleeps well on a good mattress – and this also makes the Spanish brand appeal to the Chinese market where it’s making its debut. ‘The Chinese consumer who seeks out high-quality European goods expects a European standard that’s markedly different from locally made, generally very hard mattresses,’ says Julio Ceballos, Pikolin’s representative in China.
Pikolin, which celebrated its 60th anniversary in business in 2008, is a leading bedding company in Spain, where it has over 200 shops trading under the name Bed’s. It also has factories and retail outlets in Portugal and France. However, its showroom in Shanghai is the first store the group has in the Asia-Pacific region.
The firm has ambitions to open at least one other shop in China this year. This would also be located in a commercial centre of the same calibre as the one in Shanghai. Yet Pikolin takes a prudent line when talking about the group’s long-term strategy of expansion in China. ‘This is a market with massive potential but it’s also very complex. First of all we’re going to see how the first shop goes, then we’ll decide what further steps to take,’ says Borja Solans.
