Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo led sales in the fast fashion industry in Korea last fiscal year, followed by the home-grown brand Daiz of discount retailer E-mart.

According to Uniqlo’s disclosure provided by the Financial Supervisory Service, the brand saw sales of 1.12 trillion won ($957 million) in the fiscal year beginning September 2014, breaking the coveted 1-trillion-won mark just 10 years after entering the Korean market in 2005.


Following Uniqlo was E-mart’s private brand Daiz, which saw sales of 450 billion won last year.

The rise of Daiz marks a shift in the Korean fast fashion industry, which had been largely dominated by foreign brands such as Uniqlo, H&M and Zara. Daiz was able to grow sales by 2.5 times in the past six years using E-mart’s extensive distribution network, setting an example for other discount retailers.

As E-mart’s sales continue to rise, rival discount supermarket brand Lotte Mart has entered the fray by launching its new fashion private brand TE on March 16, also bringing together fast fashion with effective supermarket distribution.

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)