Coach and Sumitomo join forces

This month, US bagmakers Coach Inc and Sumitomo Corp are planning to set up a 50:50 joint venture, Coach Japan Inc, to set up and run Coach shops in Japan. Chief operation officer Lew Frankfort said that Coach aim to accelerate sales growth in Japan and take advantage of Sumitomo's know-how in the Japanese market. Coach expect annual sales of Y11.1 billion (US$89.4 million) this year and more than Y20 billion (US$160.7 million) in three years. Frankfort added that he expects Coach's sales to Japanese consumers to climb from 20% of their annual global sales to 35% by 2003.