Sir Philip Green to launch raft of standalone Topshops across China

Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne, Sir Philip Green and Rita Ora at the British Fashion Awards. Photo / File

Sir Philip Green is attempting to put his BHS woes behind him by launching an assault on the fast growing Chinese retail market, opening a raft of standalone Topshop stores across the Asian superpower for the first time.

The retail tycoon, who has spent much of 2016 dealing with the fall-out from the collapse of the department store chain in April, has signed a deal to open what is believed to be as many as 80 Topshops in mainland China.

It follows on from Topshop's expansion in the US, which began with one store in New York in 2009 and has since grown to ten standalone stores as well as a raft of concessions in the Nordstrom department store chain.

Topshop now has some 620 shops across more than 40 countries.

It is understood that the first standalone store for the fashion brand in mainland China will launch as early as 2018, in either Beijing or Shanghai.

The deal is an extension of an existing arrangement with Chinese online fashion giant Shangpin.com, which has been helping Topshop with its online presence in China since the summer of 2014.

However to date, Topshop's only physical presence in mainland China has been in the Galeries Lafayette department store in Beijing, where it has a small concession, and a handful of stores in Hong Kong, the first of which opened in 2013.

Shangpin, run by founder David Zhao, is a members-only website offering in excess of 30m registered subscribers access to Western brands. As well as TopShop, other brands for sale include Stuart Weitzman and Rebecca Minkoff.

In addition to his website, Zhao acts as an adviser to foreign companies looking to establish a physical presence in China.

China's burgeoning middle classes are particularly hungry for Western brands, as seen by the success of Burberry and others in the country, and Topshop is hoping to tap what remains a fast growing market.

Sir Philip confirmed the expansion to The Telegraph, saying the expanded partnership with Shangpin will "cement Topshop and Topman's mission of becoming truly global businesses."

The expansion into China comes four years after Sir Philip sold a 25pc stake in Topshop and Topman to US private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners in a deal which valued the brand at £2b (NZ$3.5b).

Topshop's parent Arcadia has yet to publish accounts for the year to August 2016, but in the year to August 2015, the group, which also controls the Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge brands, posted a 6pc rise in pre-tax profits to £214.3m (NZ$383m) on sales of £2.06b (NZ$3.7b).

Sir Philip remains in talks with The Pensions Regulator over the fate of the BHS pension fund - which had a £571m deficit - following the demise of the department store chain.

The retail veteran sold BHS to bankrupt Dominic Chappell 13 month before it filed for administration.