The prestige brands of SHISEIDO, Clé de Peau Beauté, and NARS achieved significant growth, mainly in South Korea and Thailand. In particular, in the ASEAN region, we gradually expanded the opening of free-standing stores for our prestige brands, which contributed to a solid sales growth. For cosmetics/personal care brands, we strengthened marketing activities that cater to consumer preferences and lifestyles, which differ by country and region. We also realized significant growth of ANESSA and SENKA, the latter of which includes products exclusive to Asia.
We anticipate continued growth in market scale, mainly in such areas as ASEAN countries, South Korea, Oceania, and Taiwan.
From 2019, we will work to strengthen prestige brands and “Made in Japan” cosmetics/personal care brands. In the prestige category, we will diversify our contact points with consumers, which had been centered on department stores, and further expand such channels as free-standing stores and e-commerce. Additionally, in the cosmetics/personal care category, we will reinforce our portfolio of “Made in Japan” brands, which have earned a high reputation from local consumers. We will also continue further collaboration with major e-commerce platformers.
As growth in the markets of the Asia Pacific region has been remarkable and is expected to continue in the future, we will try to expand focus areas. At the end of 2018, we established a joint-venture company in the Philippines. Moving forward, we will integrate our prestige and fragrance businesses and ramp up marketing activities in the Philippines.