【英语中国】香港国金中心商场运营揭秘

Meet the man who helped bring Apple and Victoria＊s Secret to Hong Kong.

Karim Azar runs the high-end shopping mall in the city＊s International Finance Center, a soaring steel-and-glass tower that sits between two skyscrapers on Victoria Harbor. Opened a decade ago, the mall is a relative newcomer to Hong Kong＊s Central business district, where luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton have long operated big flagship stores.

How does the mall set itself apart? By bringing in brands the city has never seen before, said Mr. Azar, general manager of retail leasing at International Finance Center Management Co.

Born in Hong Kong to Lebanese and British parents, Mr. Azar became deputy manager of the chairman＊s office at Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the owners of the mall, about 15 years ago. Before that, he sold and leased high-end residential properties in Hong Kong and Europe.

Now he decides which shops go where in IFC mall, and he says he can＊t afford to sit in the office and wait for brands to come to him.

※Good tenants want landlords to seek them,§ he said, adding that he is responsible for attracting Tom Ford, Lanvin and Zara to Hong Kong. And there is more to come. Take J.Crew, whose first Hong Kong store is slated to open in IFC in the second quarter of 2014.

※I＊m pushing the retail envelope,§ Mr. Azar said.

The Apple store in IFC, opened in 2011, is one of Apple＊s top-performing stores globally, according to Mr. Azar. Currently, it is only a third of the size of the company＊s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York, though it is adding a new floor, going up one level.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, but pointed out that Apple in the past has said that its Greater China stores have the highest traffic and the highest revenue on average of Apple stores around the world.

The Apple store in the IFC mall looks simple, but there are subtle luxury touches, such as silver pillars outside the store that look identical to IFC＊s own pillars, but of better quality. It cost Apple more than $50 million to build, said Mr. Azar.

※Retail is about details,§ he noted. ※How much you put in, how much you get out.§

Steps away from the Apple store is a recently opened Victoria＊s Secret shop, which sells women＊s lingerie and body lotions. Just 1,500 square feet, it cost $2.7 million to build and generates at least twice as much in sales as the Coach store next door, according to Mr. Azar. Victoria＊s Secret didn＊t respond to an email seeking comment.

All the investment by brands into their stores helps bring in more sales, part of which flow to IFC＊s top line. Similar to other malls in Hong Kong, IFC charges a fixed rent or a percentage of sales, whichever is higher.

※I don＊t care if you are paying rent,§ said Mr. Azar, as he flipped through a few large spreadsheets with detailed sales numbers from all the stores. ※I want the upside.§ Total sales of shops in the IFC mall are expected to grow 18% to 22% this year, and rent by similar amounts, he said. Retail sales in the whole of Hong Kong rose 10% in 2012.

Mr. Azar discriminates between his stores, too. Restaurants pay only a fifth of the rents that luxury brands do. Supermarkets and cinemas pay even less, because their margins are lower but they are good at attracting traffic.

Mr. Azar wants to further reduce the number of restaurants, to free up space for higher-paying tenants. The subway station below the mall is adding food shops, which means IFC doesn＊t need to have as many restaurants as it currently has to draw traffic.

Will that ubiquitous sandwich store, Pret A Manger, also have to go? ※No,§ said Mr. Azar. ※Pret attracts well-to-do people, bankers.§ Local coffee chain Pacific Coffee Company was in late 2011 supplanted by Singapore＊s TWG Tea Company, whose high-end teas and pastries are generating three to four times as much in sales as the previous Pacific Coffee shop, according to Mr. Azar.

Mainland Chinese tourists are hugely influential on Hong Kong＊s retail scene. Almost 20 million mainland tourists visited Hong Kong in 2012, spending about $1,000 each on average in the city, according to government figures.

Nevertheless, Mr. Azar tries to keep mainland tastes at arm＊s length. Mainland Chinese tourists generate 30% of sales in IFC, which is low compared to some of its fellow Hong Kong malls.

The strategy may be a smart one. With the number of arrivals from China still rising, average spend by Chinese tourists has begun to decline as some big Chinese spenders look beyond Hong Kong to Europe.

※We seek out the more sophisticated set who like European trends rather than what much of mainland China appreciates,§ said Mr. Azar, who speaks French and Italian and was educated in the U.S., U.K. and Switzerland. ※We have many mainlanders that prefer our less busy, more spacious environment rather than just the number of shops.§

顾蔚

IFC阿扎尔（左）穿行在香港国际金融中心的购物中心。
卡里姆·阿扎尔(Karim Azar)管理着香港国际金融中心(International Finance Center)的高端购物中心。这家购物中心在2003年开业，在香港的中央商务区，相对来说还是一个新来者。路易威登(Louis Vuitton)等奢侈品牌早已在这里开设了大型旗舰店。国际金融中心是坐落于维多利亚港两栋摩天大楼之间的地标性建筑。

这家购物中心如何做到与众不同？阿扎尔说，是通过引进香港以前从未见过的品牌。阿扎尔是国际金融中心管理有限公司(International Finance Center Management Co.)商场租赁部门的总经理。他出生在香港，父亲是黎巴嫩人，母亲是英国人。他最初在香港和欧洲从事过高端住宅销售和租赁工作，15年前成为香港新鸿基地产主席办公室的副经理，新鸿基地产是国际金融中心购物中心的所有者之一。

Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIFC阿扎尔说，现在他无法坐在办公室里，等待品牌自己找上门来，好品牌都希望商场主动寻找他们。他还说，他负责将Tom Ford、Lanvin和Zara引进香港。未来他还将引进更多外国品牌。比如美国第一夫人米歇尔喜欢的J Crew，其在香港的首家门店定于2014年第二季度在国际金融中心开业。

据阿扎尔透露，苹果2011年在国际金融中心开设的门店目前是其全球表现最好的门店之一。目前这家门店的规模只是纽约第五大道苹果旗舰店的三分之一，但这家店将向上增加一层面积。苹果一位发言人拒绝置评，但指出，过去苹果曾说过，大中华地区门店客流量和收入通常是其全球门店中最高的。

国际金融中心商场内的苹果门店看似普通，但简洁的设计不乏低调奢华。比如门店外的银色立柱，虽然与国际金融中心自己的立柱看起来一样，但这些立柱品质更好。阿扎尔说，苹果花费的建造成本超过了5,000万美元。他指出，零售业重要的是细节，你在这方面的投入决定产出。

距离苹果门店不远的是最近开业的“维多利亚的秘密”(Victoria's Secret)门店。阿扎尔说，这家店面积仅1,500平方英尺（约合139平方米），建造成本为270万美元。这家商店只是卖香氛和内裤等小东西，但销售额居然是隔壁蔻驰(Coach)店的两倍多，维多利亚的秘密未回复记者寻求置评的电子邮件。

各家品牌对其门店装修的投入有助于获得更多销售额，而其中部分销售额将成为国际金融中心的收入。与香港的其他购物中心类似，国际金融中心收取固定租金或者一定百分比的销售额，两者取较高的那个。

阿扎尔一边翻弄着几张列出来自所有店面的详细销售数据的表格一边说，租户光给得起租金还不够，因为他希望从销售额中提成。预计今年国金中心商场内店铺的总销售额将增长18%-22%，预计租金收入也将以类似的幅度增长，这是2012年香港总零售额10%增幅的一倍。

阿扎尔也对这里的店铺进行区别对待。餐馆的租金仅是奢侈品牌的五分之一。超市和电影院的租金更低，因为他们的利润率较低，但擅长吸引客流。他想进一步削减餐馆数量，以腾出空间给能够支付更高租金的品牌。这家购物中心下面的地铁站正在增加食品店数量，这意味着国际金融中心不需要当前那么多的餐馆来吸引客流了。

随处可见的三明治店Pret A Manger也得撤店吗？阿扎尔说，不必，因为Pret能吸引富人和银行家。据阿扎尔说，本地咖啡连锁店太平洋咖啡(Pacific Coffee Company)在2011年末被新加坡TWG Tea Company挤掉，后者的高端茶饮和甜点销售额是此前太平洋咖啡的三到四倍。

中国大陆游客对香港的零售业有巨大的影响力。2012年有近2,000万名大陆游客来香港旅游，人均消费大约1,000美元。他们最喜欢去的是九龙弥敦道的名店，或者商铺林立的海港城。然而阿扎尔试图与大陆人的口味保持距离。大陆游客为国际金融中心贡献了30%的销售额，与同类香港购物中心相比，这一比例较低。

这个策略可能是明智的。在中国大陆游客数量仍在攀升之际，其人均消费已经开始下降，因为一些一掷千金的中国消费者将目光从香港转向欧洲。精通法语和意大利语、曾在美国、英国和瑞士受过教育的阿扎尔说，我们希望吸引更优雅成熟的消费者，他们青睐欧洲流行趋势，而不是大多数大陆游客追捧的潮流。不主动迎合大陆客人的口味，反而能够吸引一些喜欢不那么繁忙且有更宽敞购物环境的高端大陆客人。

（本文作者顾蔚是《华尔街日报》中国财富和奢侈品编辑，并负责该报中文网的原创内容。欢迎追踪她的中文网博客”高净值生活”，和每周五以中英文双语同步发表的专栏。评论请发送邮件至wei.gu@wsj.com，也可以在新浪微博上(顾蔚WeiGu)追踪她。）

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