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Sincere Department Store () is a department store under the Sincere Company Limited and one of the oldest department chains in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
. Prior to 1949, its largest operation was in Shanghai, and along with
Wing On Wing On () is a department store company in Hong Kong. The company is owned by a Hong Kong listed company Wing On Company International Limited (), incorporated in Bermuda. The holding company of the listed company itself is Wing On Internation ...
(which survives in Hong Kong),
Sun Sun ''Sun Sun'' is the 15th album by Casiopea, recorded and released in 1986. Track listing LP CD Personnel Casiopea are :Issei Noro – electric guitar (Yamaha Issei Model, SG-3000 Fretless & Kramea Pitchrider-7000 with DX-7) :Minoru Mukaiya ...
(新新公司 1926–1951) and Da Sun (大新公司) was one of the "four great department stores" of Shanghai, and therefore, China generally.


History

Founded by
Ma Ying-piu Ma Ying-piu (; 21 December 1860 – 15 July 1944) was a Hong Kong retailer and businessman. He founded the Sincere Department Store in 1900, the first Chinese-owned department store in China and is widely regarded as the "father of Chinese depart ...
on 8 January 1900 after returning from Australia and partnership with others to form the first Chinese department store in then
British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...
. Ma was inspired by his experience with retail stores in Sydney. and modelled Sincere after David Jones. Now, the company is owned by the Ma family. Until it closed in 1954, Sincere's Shanghai branch was one of the "four great companies" of Shanghai. Sincere opened in Shanghai in 1917, the first Chinese-owned department store and the first of the "Four Great Companies", which were large department stores modelled on Australian precedent established by Cantonese migrants returning from Australia. The Four Great Companies brought the model of modern department stores with egalitarian service pioneered by
Anthony Hordern & Sons Anthony Hordern & Sons was a major department store in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. With 52 acres (21 hectares) of retail space, Anthony Hordern's was once the largest department store in the world. The historic Anthony Hordern building, w ...
to Shanghai and quickly became the focal points of Shanghai's commercial district.Shopping palaces spread gospel from Down Under
, ''Sydney Morning Herald''
Prior to World War II, Sincere operated in China with stores in Shanghai,
Nanning Nanning (; ; za, Namzningz) is the capital and largest city by population of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in Southern China. It is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush subtropical foliage. Located in the South of ...
and
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...
. The Guangzhou store was destroyed by enemy fire during the war. With the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 the remaining locations were eventually taken over by the Communist state, along with all other private companies in the country. The Shanghai department store closed in 1954 while the attached hotel was part nationalised in 1956. Sincere returned to mainland China in 1993 by opening a shopping centre at 479 East Nanjing Road in Shanghai. On 15 May 2020, Realord Group Holdings Limited proposed a voluntary conditional general cash offer to acquire the entire share capital of The Sincere Company Limited. The total cash consideration would be $500 million.


Post 1997

Since 1997, Sincere's retailing arm is mostly in Hong Kong with four locations in Hong Kong (
Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
: Li Po Chun Chambers;
Causeway Bay Causeway Bay is list of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong, an area and Victoria Park, Hong Kong, a bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, straddling the border of the Eastern District, Hong Kong, Eastern and the Wan Chai District, Wan Chai ...
:
Percival Street Percival Street is a street in the East Point and Happy Valley, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The street spans from Gloucester Road in the north to Leighton Road in the south. Between Hennessy Road and Leighton Road, the street is with a bra ...
) and
Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and t ...
(
Mong Kok Mong Kok (also spelled Mongkok, often abbreviated as MK) is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Prince Edward subarea occupies the northern part of Mong Kok. Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. The area is characterised ...
:
Grand Century Place Grand Century Place is a multicomplex including a shopping mall named MOKO, two office towers and a modern hotel named Royal Plaza Hotel. It is connected to the Mong Kok East MTR station. It has been renovated more than twice, the last one b ...
;
Mong Kok Mong Kok (also spelled Mongkok, often abbreviated as MK) is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Prince Edward subarea occupies the northern part of Mong Kok. Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. The area is characterised ...
:
King Wah Centre The King Wah Centre (), situated at the northeast corner of Shantung Street and Nathan Road, is a popular shopping centre in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong. The 16-storey building features ten restaurant floors, three karaoke floors, along with ...
;
Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui P ...
:
Dragon Centre Dragon Centre is a nine-storey shopping centre in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was the largest in West Kowloon until the Elements opened above the Kowloon MTR station. History Located beside the historic Sham Shui Po P ...
;
Yau Tong Yau Tong () is an area of Hong Kong, located in the southeastern end of Kowloon, between Lei Yue Mun and Lam Tin, at the east shore of Victoria Harbour, west of Tseung Kwan O. Administratively, it is part of Kwun Tong District, the most densely ...
:
Domain Domain may refer to: Mathematics *Domain of a function, the set of input values for which the (total) function is defined **Domain of definition of a partial function **Natural domain of a partial function **Domain of holomorphy of a function * Do ...
; and
Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and flee ...
: Citywalk 2); there are Chinese location, including
Dalian Dalian () is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China. Located on the ...
. The Ma family still has a place on the corporate board (
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Walter K.W. Ma, managing director/Executive Director Philip K.H. Ma and board member King Wing Ma), but most day-to-day operations are run by non-family executives. Sincere is one of a few department stores that survived, many foreign and local firms have since disappeared.


Beyond retailing

Today Sincere has grown beyond retailing and diversified its portfolio: property investment and property development * securities trading * advertising agency – 360 °C Advertising * interior design – Pacific Falcon Design * furniture manufacturing – Sincere Living Furniture * travel agency franchising – Uniglobe Travel


References


External links

{{Commons category, Sincere Department Stores
Sincere


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20190926000350/http://www.irasia.com/listco/hk/sincere/contact.htm The Sincere Company, Limited — Corporate Information (26 Sept 2019) Department stores of Hong Kong Retail companies established in 1900 Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange 1900 establishments in Hong Kong