Japanese furniture and home-accessory retailer Nitori Holdings is ramping up its presence in China to kick-start its global expansion.

It plans to open add more than eight outlets in 2018 to its present 10.

Nitori aims to have 2000 stores overseas as well as 1000 at home by 2032. It now has 41 stores abroad and 420 in Japan. Nitori opened its first overseas outlet in Taiwan in 2007, where it now has 26 stores. It also has five stores in the US.

China is the main focus of its international expansion strategy, with plans for 1000 to 1500 outlets. It intends to initially concentrate in the cities of Shanghai and Wuhan to quickly boost its brand profile and establish dominance.

Other options are also being explored in China, including online retailing and package offerings of home furniture.

Monthly sales in China, where its first store was opened in Wuhan in 2014, have continued to exceed year-earlier levels by about 20 per cent for past several months. The Chinese outlets have prices similar to those in its Japanese stores as the company does not add tariffs to price tags and economises on logistics.

In Taiwan its stores took six years to achieve profitability, while its business in the US is still in the red.

Meanwhile, a new outlet in Tokyo’s Takashimaya Times Square commercial complex in Shinjuku is targeting overseas tourists, serving as “a starting point of our brand recognition” among overseas customers, says Nitori Holdings senior MD Fumihiro Sudo.