Japan’s Fast Retailing, the operator of cheap-chic clothing chain Uniqlo, said today

Japan’s Fast Retailing, the operator of cheap-chic clothing chain Uniqlo, said today that it aimed to open 200-300 stores per year worldwide as part of efforts to ramp up its global presence.

The company also said it aimed to boost its sales to 1.7 trillion yen (US$22 billion) by 2015, a two-fold jump from 836 billion yen the company projected for the year to August 2011.

The company, which began as a small clothing shop for men in the western Japan province of Yamaguchi under the father of current chief executive Tadashi Yanai, will open its two largest outlets in the world in New York in October.

A Uniqlo “mega-store” — the seventh global flagship outlet of the clothing chain and boasting the largest floorspace of all Uniqlo stores — will open on October 14 on Fifth Avenue.

Another “mega-store”, its second-largest, will open on 34th Street on October 21.

The company currently operates stores in New York’s Soho district, London, Paris, Shanghai and Taipei, in addition to Japan where Fast Retailing has 840 outlets.

Source AP