Sogo Hiroshima rebuilds its cosmetics floor for the first time in 23 years

Sogo & Seibu is rebuilding the cosmetics floor at Sogo Hiroshima for the first time in 23 years, aiming to create the largest such floor in the Chugoku-Shikoku region, the department-store operator said in a release dated 17 September.

A floor nearly 40% bigger

The new floor, called SOGO Beauty, will grow to 1,160 square metres from 830 square metres and to 32 brands from 27, once fully open. A first phase opens on 23 October with 24 brands split across three categories — fragrance and lifestyle (10 brands), skincare (15) and make-up (7) — ahead of a full grand opening planned for spring 2027.

Two regional firsts among four new names

Four brands are new to the floor from 23 October: Make Up For Ever, in its Chugoku-Shikoku regional debut; Tom Ford Beauty; Jo Malone London; and La Mer, opening its first location in the Hiroshima area. Sogo & Seibu also points to an expanded fragrance offer, with four brands carrying scents it says are sold at only a limited number of stores nationwide, and to seven brands getting private treatment rooms alongside a renewed shared "SOGO Beauty Room" for hands-on skincare trials by reservation.

The rebuild sits inside Sogo & Seibu's wider flagship-remodel programme, the same push behind renewals at its other core stores, and a beauty floor untouched for 23 years is a belated defence of the one department-store category that has kept resisting e-commerce. Landing a Chugoku-Shikoku first for Make Up For Ever and a Hiroshima-area first for La Mer inside the same expansion tells those brands' Japan distributors that a regional flagship, not only Fukuoka or Osaka, can carry a full-line counter — worth watching whether the roster that fills out to 32 brands by 2027 brings more such firsts, or repeats names already in the surrounding mall network.