Galeries Lafayette Appoints First CEO For China

French luxury department store Galeries Lafayette has appointed Paul Burke as new chief executive officer for the China market.

Burke has 25 years of international experience in the retail industry. Prior to joining Galeries Lafayette, he was a CEO consultant at Hong Kong fashion chain store Lane Crawford. Before that, he hold several operational positions at Adidas, Luxottica and A.S. Watson, and he has been working in the Asian market for the past 15 years.

In his new position, which is the company's first for China, Burke will be responsible for the management of Galeries Lafayette's store in China and supervise the company's expansion in this marketplace. Over the coming years, the company plans to add new stores in China. Burke will report to Nicolas Houze, Galeries Lafayette's department store CEO and Shen Jiawei, chairman of Hong Kong fashion apparel retailer I.T Limited. I.T is Galeries Lafayette's joint venture partner in China, with each party holding a 50% stake.

In 2013, Galeries Lafayette opened its first Chinese store in Beijing. With an area of over 300,000 square meters and 500 stores-in-store, the Beijing Galeries Lafayette department store is only second to its flagship store in Paris by size.

Galeries Lafayette currently has 64 outlets and five of them are outside France. These five stores are located in Jakarta, Berlin, Casablanca, Dubai and Beijing.