Smiley Inks Major New Strategic Partnership In Asia

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM and HONG KONG, CHINA, April 25, 2017 - The Smiley Company is delighted to announce a new partnership with Walton Brown. Effective April 1, 2017, Walton Brown is the exclusive licensing agent for Smiley in Greater China.

Walton Brown is a part of The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Asia's premier fashion and brand management group which includes iconic, luxury department store Lane Crawford, cutting edge fashion boutique Joyce, fashion footwear, handbags and accessories specialist Pedder Group, retail, brand management and distribution company ImagineX and full-service retail and brand management business Walton Brown.

Walton Brown is engaged in the retailing and wholesaling of multiple prestigious international brands in the premium contemporary fashion segment including Juicy Couture, kate spade new york and Brooks Brothers with over 220 point-of-sales across 51 cities in Greater China and Southeast Asia. Under this new partnership, Walton Brown has been appointed by Smiley to not only identify and secure new license deals and brand collaborations, but to help structure distribution strategies of existing Smiley licensees in the region. Given the extraordinary industry network of Walton Brown and The Lane Crawford Joyce Group, this partnership will create tremendous opportunities for Smiley, including the MyMM App, a built-for-China social mobile commerce platform that connects customers, brands and curators, and is uniquely positioned to offer authentic and in-season fashion and lifestyle products from premium to luxury international brands and to target the emerging middle class in China. MyMM is jointly founded by Walton Brown (a company of the Lane Crawford Joyce Group), The Wharf (Holdings) Limited and eCargo Holdings Limited.

This exciting new partnership with Walton Brown has been created to fuel the continued growth and successes of Smiley in the region. Currently, successful retail partnerships with partners such as Bestseller Group, C&A, MetersBonwe and VF Corporation etc. have been driving growth in the region and increasing Smiley's retail footprint in Greater China to tens of thousands of doors, whilst prestigious pop-up stores with Liberation, and a longstanding promotional collaboration with MTRC, continue to build the visibility and profile of the brand. This new deal represents an enormous opportunity for the Smiley brand in terms of category and market expansion which is in line with the core business strategy of Smiley to further develop as a complete lifestyle brand across territories.

Speaking about the partnership Smiley CEO Nicolas Loufrani said "I would like to express my heart felt gratitude to the CEO of Smiley APAC, Danny Cheung and his team whom, along with our continued investments in trade and consumer marketing have contributed vastly to our past successes. Walton Brown will now provide a new platform for our development which shall take Smiley to the next level."

Thomson Cheng, President of Walton Brown, said, "We are very excited to be partnering with Smiley to further develop the brand in this market. Happiness is seen as a major consumer lifestyle trend. The Original Smiley brand, being an iconic symbol of positivity with 45 years of heritage and track record working with the biggest brands and retailers around the world, we believe the brand has enormous potential to grow in this market."