Dive Brief:

• Japanese retailer Uniqlo is intent on boosting its U.S. presence, telling reporters Wednesday that the market is a priority for the company and "the most important," Reuters reports.

• Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing CEO Tadashi Yanai told reporters that the company plans to "rebuild" its U.S. operations, although he didn’t divulge many specifics on how it plans on doing so. 

• Yanai also said that the company hopes to make the Uniqlo name better known outside of New York and big cities in the U.S. 

Dive Insight:

Yanai has clearly and often expressed his ambitions to overtake Zara as the largest apparel retailer in the world. But the force and speed of Uniqlo’s expansion in the U.S. has been too much, too soon.

After faltering in U.S. malls, the Japanese apparel retailer scaled back its U.S. expansion plans last year from 15 new stores to just five, for a total of 44. Uniqlo previously has implied a goal of having 200 U.S. stores by 2020.

In speaking with reporters Wednesday, according to Reuters, Yanai didn’t elaborate on how the company would expand here. But, if it’s true that Uniqlo finds favor with city dwellers, it must either keep to urban centers or find ways to introduce itself to the suburban consumer, outside the cities and away from the coasts. 

The reality is that when it comes to apparel, the urban-suburban divide in the U.S. began diminishing long ago, and urban downtown retail centers have long resembled the specialty retail mix in malls. To really meet its competition, widely seen as fast-fashion players like H&M, Uniqlo likely will have to find its way to malls, at least those that are doing well. The retailer generally did choose its locations well, but under-estimated its lack of brand recognition in the suburbs, according to Fortune. That might call for a wider marketing push to educate suburbanites about the company; up to now Uniqlo has largely relied on digital advertising to promote its brand.