Matthew Williamson Shifts Business Online

LONDON — Matthew Williamson is to concentrate selling his collections online with a renewed focus on licenses, and is to close his London flagship store, WWD has learned. A new Web site is set to launch in early 2016 that will offer free shipping worldwide, and same-day delivery in London. The move will also see the label streamline its wholesale order books and bricks and mortar retail. Williamson’s store on London’s Bruton Street will close this summer and relocate to another central London space that will serve as a showroom and appointment-only boutique for online customers. A second store in Qatar currently remains open. In a bid to appeal to what the label called a “buy-now, wear-now mentality,” it will produce six fashion collections a year, and present them directly to consumers at small events. Revealing details of a business restructure first announced by WWD last month, the London-based company still plans to have a presence at London Fashion Week, though “not necessarily through traditional fashion shows.” Matthew Williamson is the latest fashion label to seek alternatives to the traditional way of doing business. For the past few seasons, London designers such as Marios Schwab have been skipping the catwalk in favor of more intimate presentations and

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Kao Q1 Net Slides on Taxes, High Base

TOKYO—Kao Corp. said Thursday that its net profit for the three months ended Mar. 31 plummeted over 50 percent in large part due to a revision of Japan’s tax system. Kao’s first-quarter net income fell 52.3 percent to 12.02 billion yen, or $100.93 million at average exchange rates for the period. A high comparative base thanks to a surge in sales in the period a year earlier, just before Japan’s consumption tax was raised by three percent, also contributed to the drop. Operating profit dropped 40.9 percent to 23.41 billion yen, or $196.64 million. The company’s sales for the quarter were down 3.6 percent on the year, totaling 328.78 billion yen, or $2.76 billion. Excluding the effect of currency conversion, sales would have decreased by 6.5 percent. “In the consumer products business, sales decreased in Japan due to a tough year-on-year comparison given the significant growth in sales [in the run up to the April 2014 tax increase],” the company said. Sales within the company’s beauty care business, which includes brands such as Kanebo, Molton Brown, Bioré, Jergens and John Frieda, fell 7.2 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. Sales in this segment totaled 134 billion yen, or $1.13 billion. Outside of Japan,

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