Thanks, there’s definitely something to take from this. I don’t recall exactly how much these have been discussed in recent years, but they are familiar themes to me. I’ll tackle a few of your points myself right away.
The company’s answer to these has usually been that it’s done in close cooperation. Of course, partners’ resources and capabilities are assessed in advance, as well as their expertise in retail operations like Marimekko’s. Ultimately, the partner naturally commits money and resources to the store chain and they also possess local knowledge, so I would believe that the partner plays a larger role in opening new stores, although there is certainly a shared vision that growth is the goal.
Brand sales are simply the retail value of products sold by Marimekko. The relationship between that and the company’s own figures depends entirely on how much of the business—in this case in the EMEA region—is own retail versus wholesale (and sometimes licensing sales). In other words, by increasing own stores or own online sales, those figures get closer to each other. The first own store in the EMEA region is indeed opening in Paris. Of course, it is a completely different matter how profitable a wider opening of own stores in the EMEA region would be; I personally wouldn’t expect very aggressive growth in own retail.