197 1 year was the beginning of Michael Ying Lee-yuen's career, and 198 1 year was the first turning point of his career success. By operating retail stores, Michael Ying Lee-yuen has raised the brand of ESPRIT to a new height. Michael Ying Lee-yuen attaches great importance to the image of the store. From time to time, he would pretend to be a customer and walk around the ESPRIT store to observe the decoration, atmosphere, service attitude and customer reaction. He is a keen shopper. For example, when he was interviewed by Asia Weekly, he bluntly said, "I like to buy clothes, and I must wear them!"
Brand is Michael Ying Lee-yuen's dream. In order to fully own the ESPRIT brand, 1996, after the couple divorced, he bought 63% of the shares of American esprit, and in 2002 he repurchased the remaining 37% at a price of about NT$ 5.4 billion. Since then, he has owned the trademark right of ESPRIT 100% in America.
I was the agent of American ESPRIT 30 years ago, and now I come back to buy my parent company. Michael Ying Lee-yuen is also very happy to say that this is his happiest thing. In 2002, Esprit Global became a constituent of the Hang Seng Index, but compared with these two happy events, Michael Ying Lee-yuen thought that "it is more important for me to buy American business".
Michael Ying Lee-yuen is bold enough. He often takes action in times of economic depression. Hong Kong was hit hard by the financial turmoil in 1997. Michael Ying Lee-yuen did not slow down its expansion, but took advantage of the sharp drop in store rents to expand rapidly and opened several large-scale ESPRIT compound concept stores. Last year's SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) storm reduced the income of Hong Kong and Taiwan by 30%, but Michael Ying Lee-yuen decided to close Joyce Boutique's store in a prime location in Hong Kong after the lease expired, and then open a flagship store of ESPRIT, including not only clothing, jewelry, accessories and household items, but also a top hairdressing salon with the same name. He insisted that ESPRIT "is not just selling clothes ... (ESPRIT) is a way of life and attitude." Mark ronson Rosenfeld, a consumer analyst in Hong Kong, believes that large stores can strengthen the brand of ESPRIT, selling images rather than products.
In fact, in recent years, ESPRIT has actively developed large-scale specialty stores in Taiwan Province Province, but the performance of department stores has stagnated, which shows that ESPRIT hopes to build a brand image through specialty stores.