Eclipse To Open 1,000 Ernest Hemingway Mattress Stores in China

June 4, 2019  by Jane Chero in Business Strategy, Industry   

The licensee, Shenzhen Huasheng Home Furnishing Group Co., Ltd., plans to open approximately 250 of the Ernest Hemingway Mattress stores within the next year. The remainder will be built out over the next five years. All the stores will be opened in furniture malls, a popular shopping concept in China in which virtually all tenants sell some type of home furnishings.

“This is an incredible opportunity for us to grow our Ernest Hemingway brand internationally in ways we could not have imagined when we re-launched it earlier this year,” said Stuart Carlitz, chief executive officer of Eclipse International. “The demand for American luxury brands has not subsided in China, and Ernest Hemingway is about as American as it gets. His legend still resonates worldwide.”

The initial store rollout will concentrate on major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, while future plans call for additional locations in second- and third-tier cities. “Our aggressive rollout of the Hemingway mattress stores will help grow our partnership with Eclipse International,” said Ben Wu, owner of Shenzhen Huasheng Home Furnishing Group Co., Ltd. “The stores are a key component of our growth strategy.”

Eclipse continues to grow its footprint in the Asian market. The Hemingway stores will be in addition to Eclipse branded mattress specialty stores that are being opened by another Eclipse licensee, Shenzhen Meiting Creating Furnishing Co. That company is in the midst of opening more than 100 stores. About a third of those have already opened, and the remainder are scheduled to open during the next two years.