FJ Benjamin additionally controls an expanding roster of upscale pubs and sports bars in Singapore and Indonesia. Guess? what? FJ Benjamin brings 20-plus upscale western brands to Southeast Asia and Australia. The company operates about 185 retail outlets and distributes fashion apparel in eight Asia Pacific cities. (The company began opening Gap stores in Singapore and Malaysia in 2006.) With brands like Guess?, Valentino, Gap, La Senza, and house label RAOUL, FJ Benjamin derives two-thirds its turnover from the retailing and distribution of fashion products. The balance of its business lies in the distribution of timepieces, with Guess?, Girard-Perregaux, Nautica, and Marc Ecko boosting sales.

Since 1963 Fast Retailing has been working to fill the gap in Japan's casual wear market. The company operates about 815 Uniqlo (a combination of the words unique and clothing) stores in Japan and another 145 Uniqlo shops in foreign markets, including China, France, South Korea, the UK and the US. The first Uniqlo store opened New York City in 2005. Fast Retailing -- often described as the "Gap of Japan" -- sells "cheap chic" basics (similar to US-based Old Navy or Spain's Zara, but undercutting its competitors more drastically) for men, women, and children. It buys most of its clothes from 60 factories in China. Founder and chairman Tadashi Yanai and his family own nearly half of Fast Retailing.

Alexon Group is an apparel retailer with more than 100 shops throughout the UK and Europe as well as about 900 concessions inside large UK department stores. It also markets clothing online. The company's brands include Alex & Co., Ann Harvey, Dash, Eastex, Kaliko, and Minuet. Undergoing changes designed to improve profits and focus, the company sold its Bay Trading subsidiary, which operated about 260 stores, to Rinku Group after placing the chain in administration in 2009. The rest of the Alexon Group did not go into administration but is suffering from slumping sales.

Euro Car Parts is dedicated to an auto's performance once it drives down the road a pace. The company is the largest independent supplier of auto parts for the UK aftermarket. The company has a catalog of more than 100,000 parts for European vehicles, including brands such as Audi, BMW, Citroen, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot, and Volvo. Euro Car Parts Limited company operates about 70 branches throughout the UK and offers delivery services to repair shops through its own fleet. Euro Car Parts Limited company's roots date back to 1978.

The leading online retailer CSN Stores, operates more than 200 online stores in a variety of niche market segments. Between its numerous websites, the company hawks more than 1 million products, including home and office furnishings, housewares, tools and hardware, luggage, shoes, and fitness items. In addition to CSNStores.com, the company operates sites such as AllModern.com, Cookware.com, Luggage.com, SimplyDesks.com, and Strollers.com. CEO Niraj Shah and chairman Steve Conine started the company in 2002 with one shopping destination, RacksandStands.com, and have continued their online expansion.

Ideal Shopping Direct (ISD) operates a home shopping television network that reaches some 23 million homes throughout the UK. The company's three channels are: Create and Craft (health and beauty, craft products); Ideal World (general merchandise, including apparel, leisure, craft, home, health and beauty, and jewelry); and Ideal World 2, which runs repeats of selected shows from its sister channels. Paul Wright and Valerie Kaye founded the company in 1999 after a series of failed businesses, seeding the idea for television shopping with a mail-order business and later transferring to TV in 2000.

Founded in 1907 by Fred Palmer and George Donavin, the company got its start making sheet metal and tinware. Skylights and windows from PALMER -DONAVIN MANUFACTURING help residents of the Hoosier and Buckeye states see a little better. The company operates four divisions -- building materials; heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC); kitchen and bathroom cabinets; and wood and laminate flooring -- through about 10 locations in Ohio and Indiana. Building materials include doors and windows, roofing, siding, insulation, gutters, fences, and decks. PALMER -DONAVIN carries such HVAC brands as Rheem and Armstrong Air, as well as cabinets from Wilsonart, Cardell, and Hartson-Kennedy.

Passion Parties, Inc. gives new meaning to the concept of an intimate party. Passion Parties, founded in 1994, sells sensual products to women through home demonstrations, or "passion parties," throughout the US and Canada. Parties are led by more than 28,000 independent sales reps called Passion Consultants and are designed to be confidential, fun, and educational, as organizers peddle some 300 bath products, lingerie, edibles, books, and sex toys. Its primary product line, RomantaTherapy, boasts body lotions, fragrances, and gels. The company, a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors, and Therapists, is careful to point out that its products are for enhancing intimacy among couples.

Founded in 1994 as Korea Home Shopping, the firm changed its name to GS Home Shopping in 2005. GS Home Shopping allows consumers to shop without the hassle of leaving the house. The company, the third largest TV home shopping outlet (behind QVC and HSN), beams 24 hours of live television programming each day into some 17 million homes throughout Southeast Asia and China. GSeShop is GS Home Shopping's Internet shopping mall that not only allows customers to order goods from the Internet, but provides more than 2.2 million product reviews. GS Home Shopping also circulates more than 2 million catalogs each month that feature more than 3,000 products.

Grocery Outlet founded in 1946, the third-generation family-owned company sold an equity stake to the Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners in fall 2009. Grocery Outlet Inc. Company Profile Grocery Outlet operates about 135 deep-discount supermarkets in a half dozen western states, primarily California, Oregon, and Washington. The stores, which average about 20,000 square feet, sell a wide range of name-brand products, including groceries, wine and beer, fresh produce, household items, health and beauty care products, and over-the-counter drugs at up to 60% less than traditional supermarket chains. More than 50 of Grocery Outlet's stores are located in California.

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