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Asian Baby Products Chain Mounts Push

A Taiwanese baby products retailer is opening a store in Irvine and other Asian hubs as part of a larger strategy that eventually calls for targeting a wide swath of shoppers.

Irvine-based America Tung Ling Corp. this month started rolling out its Asian-themed Piyo Piyo Funhouse stores in Southern California.

America Tung Ling, part of Taiwan’s Cayman Tung Ling Co., plans to open five Piyo Piyo stores by year’s end and 20 by next year.

The stores, named after a cartoon duck, sell baby powder, training cups, furniture, clothes and other items geared for children up to 4 years old.

“We’re looking not only to capture moms and dads with a brand new baby but also provide for customers as their child grows,” said John Breen, general sales manager of America Tung Ling.

The company’s products are made in Taiwan and have an Asian flavor—think cutesy, Hello Kitty-type characters and bright colors.

For now, America Tung Ling is looking to target a niche market of first- and second-generation Asians. Longer term, the company hopes to compete for a broader mix of customers.

Crowded Market

In doing so, it’ll bump up against the market’s dominant player, Toys “R” Us Inc.’s Babies “R” Us, as well as smaller boutiques.

“Competition is competition,” Breen said. “If someone goes and buys a product from someone else, then you have to ask yourself, ‘How do I draw that particular consumer in to take a look at us?’”

America Tung Ling is looking to Piyo Piyo (pronounced “p-oh, p-oh”) and other cartoon characters to attract a trendier set of buyers, according to Breen.

The company’s first Orange County store is set to open in Irvine next month in Diamond Jamboree, an Asian-themed shopping center.

The Irvine store is 1,497 square feet and is set to employ three to five people.

“We’re a very family-oriented shopping center,” said Suzie Won, marketing director at Diamond Jamboree Ltd., the center’s developer and property manager. “With Piyo Piyo, their products are a nice complement to our other store offerings.”

America Tung Ling picked Diamond Jamboree because of Irvine’s large Asian population and tenants such as H Mart, an Asian grocery store run by New York’s Hanahreum Group.

Stores in Rowland Heights and Arcadia opened earlier this month. Stores also are planned for Garden Grove and Monterey Park in December and Chino Hills in January.

America Tung Ling hopes to see $2 million in sales by the end of the year and $7.5 million to $7.8 million in 2011, according to Breen.

The company is looking to initially gain a foothold in Asian areas in hopes of attracting Chinese and Taiwanese shoppers already familiar with the brand, according to Breen.

“The next step is to penetrate the malls,” said Karen Sunday, a Newport Beach-based real estate broker who handled America Tung Ling’s Irvine lease.

Sunday also brokered the Garden Grove lease and is helping the company find space in San Diego.

Brea Mall and South Coast Plaza are under consideration for stores, Breen said.

“We’re looking to open stores that don’t necessarily have to be in an Asian community,” he said.

The company has to look beyond Asians to make it in the U.S., according to George Whalin, of Carlsbad-based Retail Management Consultants.

“You cannot rely on first- and second-generation Asians as your sole customer base—it’s not enough,” he said. “We have a big Asian population here. But a lot of the Asian population has been here for a while now.”

America Tung Ling needs two marketing strategies, according to Thomas Tseng, principal and cofounder of multicultural market research firm New American Dimensions in Los Angeles. One has to focus on Asians, the other on everybody else, Tseng said.

“Getting that crossover, mainstream population is almost, in a way, launching a new brand and all the strategies associated with that—name recognition, advertising, positioning products and services,” he said. “That’s a very different type of proposition.”

First- and second-generation Chinese already may know Piyo Piyo from its stores in Taiwan and China. Parent company Cayman Tung Ling manages or franchises more than 300 Piyo Piyo stores in China and 20 in Taiwan.

The company got its start in 1988 selling Piyo Piyo purses, backpacks, stationary and other products for teens and young adults. The company soon shifted its focus to baby products.

Marketing

America Tung Ling plans to run newspaper ads and do e-mail marketing to get word out about its stores. Grand openings and other promotions are in the works for individual stores.

The company eventually plans to sell products online.

If America Tung Ling can weather a still-tough retail market and hold out for more “normal times,” then the company has a good chance of making it here, Whalin said.

“There’s never a good time or a bad time to open a store,” he said. “It’s a matter of whether you have the wherewithal to come in and build the business. There are opportunities. If they’ve looked at the marketplace, they may very well be able to do it.”

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