The Chinese market remains a strong and vibrant economy which rewards innovation and offers key growth opportunities for international brands to tap into its expanding young consumer base, according to the head of Tapestry Inc., a New York-based luxury goods group.
Joanne Crevoiserat, the company's CEO, was speaking during an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Beijing, where she highlighted how the Chinese market continues to show strong vitality in spite of global headwinds, and said it has help fuel her company's rapid growth in recent years.
"What we see in the marketplace is a vibrant economy, one where we're able to deliver innovation into the market, deliver compelling value, really work deeply with our consumers to understand them and then bring innovation to life for them. And that is powering our business. We've seen tremendous success in this market. We've been in this market for over 20 years, we have over 350 stores across 90 cities in this market. Yet we see continued growth opportunity, and we're excited about that growth opportunity," she said.
"In the last quarter, we've grown double digits -- over 30 percent -- in this market. And for several quarters now, we've grown double digits. So that gives us the confidence to see that we have a lot of opportunity in the long run, way ahead in China," she added.
Crevoiserat further stressed the importance of the Chinese market in driving Tapestry's wider global strategy and expressed full confidence in its future development, saying her company particularly hopes to tap into the huge potential afforded by China's young consumer base.
"More than 70 percent of our growth in the coming years will come from international markets and China is a key market. But it's not just a market for growth for us, it's a market for inspiration. We are meeting with young consumers, are engaging them in our brands in a deep way and leveraging innovation from this market and it informs what we do globally. I believe that China can be our fastest growing market over the next five years and I'm excited to unlock that here," she said.
Vibrant Chinese market fuels success, inspires innovation for luxury brands: Tapestry CEO
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) remains far from under control, with the country having reported more than 5,000 confirmed cases and 2,378 deaths.
As of Aug 16, the DRC had reported 5,021 confirmed cases across 55 health zones in six provinces, with a case fatality rate of 47.4 percent, according to the latest report released by the WHO Regional Office for Africa on Tuesday.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the outbreak was "far from being under control" and had gained a considerable lead over response efforts, warning of a high risk of further spread within the country and internationally.
Tedros made the remarks at the opening of a meeting of a WHO emergency committee convened to review the outbreak, which the agency declared a public health emergency of international concern on May 17.
The WHO said the outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, for which there is currently no approved vaccine or treatment, was declared by DRC authorities on May 15, and it is already the largest of its kind ever recorded and the second-largest Ebola outbreak globally, while transmission remains intense and has yet to enter a clear declining phase.
Despite ongoing interventions, the trajectory of the deadly virus remains highly unpredictable. Thierno Balde, incident manager for Bundibugyo virus disease in the DRC at the WHO, provided an update on ground operations.
"WHO has already added 100 additional expert epidemiologists who will be deployed at the field level, at the health zone levels, supported by almost more than 500 community health workers who will go to the communities, do the contact tracing and identify the cases, convince the people to accept to be followed up," said Balde.
He then added that healthcare capacity has been expanded with 400 treatment beds added across the country over the past two weeks, but it has remained impossible to determine exactly when the infection rate will begin to decline or when the epidemic will be fully brought under control.
The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Monday that the outbreak could become the deadliest Ebola epidemic ever recorded globally unless its trajectory is urgently reversed.
"It is now taking approximately one life every 30 minutes," the Africa CDC said. "Unless its trajectory is urgently reversed, it risks becoming the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded globally."
Ebola outbreak in DR Congo far from under control: WHO
