rea. Here are three key takeaways from the global report. Discipline, not speed, is the new expansion playbook  The most striking pattern among this year’s cohort is restraint. These are companies expanding on their own timetable, having watched a generation of Western retailers overreach. Chagee opens a new store every 1.7 days on average, working towards a target of 15 billion cups served annually across 100 countries. Yet the tea chain, which raised US$411 million in its Nasdaq listing at a US$7.66 billion valuation, refuses to roll out franchise outlets, keeping deliberate control of every location, from its largest global flagship in Wan Chai to a Level 74 outlet atop Bangkok’s King Power Mahanakhon. Urban Revivo tells a similar story on a longer clock. Founder Leo Li spent nearly two decades building a genuinely competitive fashion brand at home, now with more than 400 stores, before committing to New York, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Even then, roughly 60 per cent of its Covent Garden assortment was designed by a London-based European Design Centre, a level of market-specific investment fast fashion rarely bothers with. Laopu Gold may be the purest expression of the principle. Despite sales jumping 221 per cent to 27.3 billion yuan in 2025, enough for Frost & Sullivan to rank it second in China’s luxury revenue, ahead of Hermès, the jeweller operates just 45 stores across 16 Chinese cities and a single overseas outpost at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. East meets West  This year sees more collaboration between Asian and Western brands.  Sephora is partnering with CJ Olive Young to carve out dedicated zones for the Korean beauty retailer in its own stores and online across the US, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. The retailer, whose Q3 2025 sales reached US$1.07 billion, opens its first California store this May. Google, meanwhile, acquired a four per cent stake in Gentle Monster, valued at approximately 107 million euros, oriented toward smart glasses. Bosideng, which began in 1976 with eleven villagers and eight sewing machines in rural Jiangsu, appointed Kim Jones, formerly of Dior and Fendi, as artistic director of its premium Areal line. In January, Areal became the first Chinese down apparel brand invited to open a pop-up at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann in Paris. Scale is settled, durability is the question now While the growth numbers are impressive, the report is equally direct about concentration risk. Labubu’s parent line, The Monsters, accounted for approximately 38 per cent of Pop Mart’s total revenue last year, and after a two-year share rally of more than 300 per cent, investors are asking what happens when the hype moves on. CEO Wang Ning insists the company “has more than one driver”, pointing to a portfolio of more than a dozen IPs each generating over 100 million yuan annually. Chagee’s own prospectus shows a similar dependence: 91 per cent of its China GMV in 2024 came from signature tea lattes, with 61 per cent derived from just three products. The brands of The New East have proven they can scale. Whether they can outlast their own momentum is the story of 2026. The New East first appeared in the May issue of Inside Retail Asia. For the full picture and deeper insights into all the brands featured in the report, please read the complete global report here.