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 今日主題：Department stores-- Chinese takeaway  百貨商店--中式速食

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 中英文稿：
Department stores-- Chinese takeaway
百貨商店--中式速食

Old British brands get a lift in Asia
老牌英國品牌搭上亞洲順風車

CLARKS shoes have more cachet with Chinese shoppers than with British ones. DAKS, an upmarket British clothing brand, has two stores in Britain but sells through 43 in Asia. Marks & Spencer is labouring to coax matronly Britons back into its shops, but plans to open 250 new ones overseas. Now House of Fraser, a 165-year-old department-store chain, is to seek more growth and glamour abroad than it can find at home.
與英國消費者相比，其樂鞋（CLARKS）在中國消費者群體中享有更高的品牌知名度。達克斯（DAKS）是英國一家高端服飾品牌，在英國本土僅有2家專賣店，但在亞洲設有43個專賣店。瑪莎百貨（Marks & Spencer）對哄回那些慢條斯理的英國國民感到力不從心，因而轉變策略，打算在海外市場中增開250家新店。如今擁有165年歷史的老牌百貨連鎖弗雷澤百貨（House of Fraser），也在海外市場中尋求比國內更多的發展空間和品牌聲譽。

Yuan Yafei, China's joint 92nd-richest person, says he wants to “bring the House of Fraser to the whole China”. Nanjing Xinjiekou, a department store controlled by his Sanpower Group, is to take an 89% stake, valuing House of Fraser at 450m($754m). A complication is Mike Ashley, owner of the Sports Direct chain of sportswear shops (and of Newcastle United football club), who snapped up an 11% stake in House of Fraser after Sanpower made its offer. His intentions are unclear.
在中國富豪中排名並列第92的袁亞非表示，他想“把弗雷澤百貨帶給全中國”。他創建的三胞集團所屬的南京新街口百貨商場，正洽購弗雷澤百貨89%的控股權，其市值估價約4.5億英鎊（約合7.54億美元）。但是動向體育（Sports Direct）運動服飾連鎖商店（以及紐卡斯爾足球俱樂部）的老闆麥克•阿什利卻讓這筆收購變得稍顯複雜，在三胞集團提出收購提議之後，阿什利搶購了弗雷澤百貨11%的股份。目前尚不明了其意欲何為。

House of Fraser is not a glittering prize. It is burdened with debt and a deficit in its pension plan. The holding company that owns it reported a pre-tax loss of 8.2min the year ending January 2013. Trading has perked up, thanks to online sales and popular own-label products. Last Christmas was its “best ever”. But the layout of some of House of Fraser's 60 stores is “not ideal”, says Tony Shiret, a retail analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank. It will take a lot of investment to spruce them up.
弗雷澤百貨並不是一個閃閃發光的戰利品。它負債累累，又因養老計畫有著赤字虧空。控股公司報告，截至去年年一月底，其稅前虧損已達到820萬英鎊。多虧了線上銷售及其頗受歡迎的自有產品，銷售才略有起色。去年耶誕節還曾達到“歷史最高值”。聖埃斯皮裡圖州投資銀行（Espirito Santo

Investment Bank）的零售業分析員托尼•史瑞特稱，在弗雷澤百貨60家分店中，有些店的佈局陳列“並不理想”。要對此改善將會耗資巨大。

Department stores have suffered since the 1970s, when customers started driving out of town to buy big-ticket items such as televisions. Harrods and Selfridges have firmly positioned themselves as purveyors of luxury goods. House of Fraser, along with Debenhams and Marks & Spencer, occupy less elevated ranks between them and “fast-fashion” retailers such as Primark. The “murky middle” is an uncomfortable place for most brands, says Allyson Stewart-Allen, a marketing consultant. Grocery giant Tesco is losing market share to discounters and upmarket emporia; its finance director quit on April 4th.
從上世紀七十年代開始，百貨商店就開始走下坡路，消費者開始自駕出城購買諸如電視機之類的大額商品。哈洛茲百貨（Harrods）和塞弗裡吉斯百貨（Selfridges）一直堅定的把自己定位在高檔奢侈品經銷商的位置。弗雷澤百貨（House of Fraser）與德本漢姆百貨（Debenhams）、瑪莎百貨（Marks & Spencer）等級稍遜於前兩家百貨以及普利馬克（Primark）等高端經銷商。行銷顧問艾利森•斯圖爾特•艾倫稱，對大部分品牌而言，“曖昧的中檔”都不是一個舒服的位置。雜貨店連鎖企業樂購（Tesco）正慢慢把市場佔有率輸給折扣店以及高檔商場；本月4日，其財務總監從樂購辭職。

China offers a fresh start (though plenty of British retailers, including Tesco, have found the going hard there). Mr Yuan hopes that House of Fraser's British heritage and its royal warrant will entrance China's burgeoning consumer class. Hong Kong's Fung brothers made a similar bet by buying Gieves & Hawkes, a Savile Row tailor, in 2012. Department stores may be past their prime in Britain, but in China their sales will grow by more than 38% by 2019, predicts Verdict, a retail consultancy.
中國市場為弗雷澤百貨提供了一個全新的開始（即使包括樂購在內的一眾英國零售企業，都發現在中國市場的日子並不好過）。袁亞非希望，弗雷澤百貨承襲的英國傳統及其王室認證能夠確保其打入中國發展迅猛的消費者市場。香港馮氏兄弟曾做過一個相似的賭注，那就是在2012年收購來自薩維爾街的服裝品牌吉凡克斯（Gieves & Hawkes）。英國的百貨商店也許風光不再，但是零售諮詢公司Verdict預測，在中國他們的營業額到2019年將會增長38%以上。

Mr Ashley's thinking is more difficult to discern. Does he hope to make a quick profit, as he did in January after Sports Direct bought, and then quickly re-sold, a 4.6% stake in Debenhams? (He has swapped his holding for the right to buy 6.6% of the retailer if its share price falls to a certain level.) Perhaps he wants another outlet for flogging sportswear. House of Fraser has challenged Mr Ashley's purchase, saying the seller should have offered the stake to other shareholders first. In the 1980s House of Fraser was the subject of a histrionic row between a British tycoon, Tiny Rowland, who coveted the company, and an Egyptian investor, Mohamed Al Fayed, who bought it. The retailer hopes to sell itself more quietly this time.
麥克•阿什利的想法愈發難以理解。他在一月買進動向體育（Sports Direct），再迅速轉手賣出，他是想用這種方式利用他在德本漢姆4.6%的股權一夜暴富？（如果股價回落到一定水準，他將把自己的股份換成購買德本漢姆6.6%的股權）。又或許是他想為拋售運動服飾另尋出路？弗雷澤百貨（House of Fraser）已經對阿什利的搶購表示質疑，並表示出售方應把股權優先提供給其他股東。在上世紀八十年代，弗雷澤百貨（House of Fraser）曾是兩大巨亨商業爭奪的對象，最後結果是，垂涎已久的英國巨頭蒂尼•羅蘭德惜敗，埃及投資商默罕默德•法耶德成功收購。這次，弗雷澤百貨希望這次的收購能夠更加平靜的進行。