Christmas trading off to slow start
Fashion retailers have seen less consumer spending in the run-up to the Christmas selling season. Combined like-for-like sales from a group of 25 mass-market high street clothing chains fell by 4 per cent, 5 per cent and 4 per cent respectively over the three weeks to December 3. The figures, which account for thousands of stores and are compiled privately for the industry by accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward, are the firmest indication yet that clothing retailers face a potentially disastrous Christmas.
The sector is experiencing an unprecedented amount of pre-Christmas discounting, something that retail experts warn will lead customers to expect money-off as a matter of course in future years. "There is more discounting than this time last year and that is changing people's mindsets," said Helen Dickinson of KPMG in The Sunday Telegraph. "Pre-Christmas discounts really are the last chance saloon. They are damaging retailers' brands," said Richard Hyman, chairman of Verdict Research.
Bulgari Q2 double-digit growth
Bulgari SpA reported revenues for the second quarter up 16.3 percent to €243.9 million. The company said new products and sales growth in Japan has boosted growth in the second quarter ended 30 June. Also driving sales were its new pavé diamond jewellery line Parentesi and overhauled watch collection. Chief executive Francesco Trapani called Bulgari's creative "reinterpretations of iconic themes and motifs" in watches and jewellery a success. "I am therefore confident that the group is going in the right direction and, in accordance with the guidance already given to the market, I confirm my optimism also for the next months," he said in a statement. Trapani said in March that sales for the full year 2006 should grow 8 to 9 percent, with profits also in the "high single-digits". Jewellery sales rose 9.8 percent to €100.2 million, while watch revenues gained 20.7 percent to €69.8 million. Sales from fragrances rose 24.2 percent to €45.1 million, while accessories sales increased 18.4 percent to €22.1 million. Although sales grew in all geographic regions, the European market - especially Italy - showed a slowdown in the second quarter. However, accelerated sales in Asia compensated for the European results. Sales in Italy for the second quarter increased a mere 2.7 percent to €30.7 million, compared with a 13.9 increase in the first quarter. Sales in the rest of Europe gained 17 percent to €34.8 million. Sales in the Americas climbed 12.7 percent to €34.8 million. Meanwhile, sales in Japan surged 30.3 percent to €65.7 million. The rest of Asia showed signs of recovery from a drop in sales volume of 20.3 percent in the first quarter, with volume growing 8.2 percent to €37.2 million in the second quarter. The company said it had witnessed promising Asian sales despite weakness in some markets there. Last year, the company closed down some wholesale accounts in the region to prevent the reselling of stock to Japan . Revenues for the first half increased 15.1 percent to €447.8 million.
www.bulgari.com
28 July 2006
Vietnam jumper export explodes
The Vietnamese export turnover of jumpers has soared during the first four months of this year. The Vietnamese Ministry of Trade has reported that earnings have risen 44.7 percent on sales of $10.33 million, in turn an increase of 20 percent.
The EU is currently the leading importer of these goods, accounting for 49 percent of total exports from Vietnam . European countries to have seen marked rises in imports are Germany , France and England . Japan is the second largest import market for Vietnamese jumpers, although it saw quantities drop slightly compared with the same period last year. It imported $1.7 million worth of jumpers for the January-April period.
Summer edition Who's Next cancelled
The summer edition of the Paris-based fashion trade show has been cancelled. The show was to take place from 30 June to 2 July. Instead, the next edition will be its autumn show from 1 till 4 September. The organisation has decided to show only twice a year from now on. Reason for this are that a recent survey showed that French and international buyers preferred to attend the autumn show. Furthermore, the locations in the heart of Paris, such as the Grand Palais, Louvre Carrousel and Palais de Tokyo, are not available in June and July.
This September Who's Next will take place under one roof with accessories fair Premiere Classe for the first time. Who's Next presents about 520 collections, while Premiere Classe presents 350. The show will once again be divided into four segments: Fast (urban and skare-oriented brands), Fresh (young brands), Fame (women's wear designers) and Private (women's ready-to-wear).
www.whosnext.com
8 March 2006
New Business Venture For Clements Ribeiro
London design duo Clements Ribeiro have reportedly set up a new business venture called Clements Ribeiro Trading, in a bid to diversify and wholesale its accessories. The core business of the designers went into voluntary liquidation last month, according to Draper's Record. The husband and wife team Suzanne Clements and Inacio Ribeiro, known for their intarsia cashmere and feminine prints, fell into difficulty after their Italian manufacturer over-committed its capacity for autumn 05. It cancelled its licensing agreement with the pair, leaving them with no means to carry the company forward in the short term.
Clements stated in a recent interview with Emap-owned Drapers: "We were shunted to the back of the manufacturing queue, but we had already restructured the business and geared everything towards Italy ." The company, which has over 200 global stockists, will be delivering autumn 05 orders, but uncertainty reigns over next season's collection and whether or not there would be a ready-to-wear show at London Fashion Week this September.
The company is negotiating with potential investors and looking ahead at future manufacturing. The company appointed London-based insolvency practitioners Daniel Rubin & Partners earlier this month, but registered Clements Ribeiro Trading at Company House just one week later. Clements Ribeiro's contract to design for Cacharel is unaffected.
2 August 2005
Mosaic To Expand To Russia
The Mosaic fashion group, majority owned by Baugur, is targeting Russia as part of an expansion drive. Mosaic, which owns chains including Oasis, Karen Millen, Coast and Whistles, this week becomes the first UK company to float on the Icelandic stock exchange. The sale of a minority stake in the business will raise around £10m. High demand from potential shareholders has put a £300m value on the business. However, shareholders including Baugur, Icelandic bank Kaupthing, and the management team led by chief executive Derek Lovelock, are retaining their stakes.
Mosaic has also raised £30m from a private placing to institutional investors last month, and plans a £50m bonds issue later this summer. The cash will pay back £80m of debt held by Kaupthing, leaving Mosaic more strongly placed for expansion.
Karen Millen, which already trades in Russia, will have five stores by next spring, while Oasis plans seven franchised stores in Russia over the next two years. Mr Lovelock told the Times: "The experience with Karen Millen has proved that Russia is an incredibly fast-growing market and we have an excellent partner." At last month's UK Fashion Export Awards, Charles Hecker, of the Moscow Office of Control Risks Group, said there was a strong demand for UK fashions aimed at affluent Russian consumers.
He said: "Russia looks set to become the third largest non-EU market for EU apparel, after the USA and Japan and UK companies in particular are really making their mark."
13 June 2005
May trading falls 2.5 per cent
The closely watched British Retail Consortium's monthly sales monitor is expected to confirm anecdotal reports that trading in May was dire.
Some analysts are predicting the monitor will show sales fell by 2.5 per cent on a like-for-like comparison with a year ago. BRC director Kevin Hawkins this weekend called on the Bank of England to offer 'the only possible remedy' by cutting base lending rates and reducing the pressure on household incomes.
4 June 2005
Fakes finance terrorism
We
know it's wrong, but it's so hard to resist that gorgeous fake Vuitton purse
that you know you'll only want to use for one season. What's the harm, you may
think. However, experts at the Business of Luxury Summit in Shanghai last week
warned that buying fakes could help finance the next suicide bombing.
Rupert Hambro, chairman of British research firm Walpole, said that counterfeiting is a problem that is often underestimated. The China Daily reports that since 1993 production of fakes worldwide has soared by 1,700 per cent and that British and US intelligence have tracked some of the proceeds to terrorist organizations such as al-Quaida.
"Profits benefit organized crime rather than the local community," Hambro stated. The fact of the matter is that counterfeiters also damage the value of real brand names and companies like Gucci and Louis Vuitton are left to battle the incessant production of fakes.
Further to this, the China Daily argues that although many luxury goods companies believe that a country like China is a great potential market for them, the taxes on the mainland are exhorbitant and only a very small percentage of Chinese can actually afford these goods. This, however, has not deterred these companies in the least. And why should they? According to a study made by investment bank Merrill Lynch last year, the Chinese were the third largest buyers of luxury Italian goods, buying 11 per cent of the total. American consumers represented 25 per cent, while the Japanese headed up the pack with 26 per cent of the total.
"Basically, we need to create a market here," said Prada chairman and CEO, Patrizio Bertelli during the summit. "We have become a guarantee for quality in the eyes of the consumers." And that remains the strength of the luxury brands, one that cannot be stressed enough. So, next time you find yourself faced with the choice, ditch the fakes. In the end, the real thing lasts longer, making it a better buy. Besides, do you really want to endorse terrorism, simply for fashion's sake?
24 May 2005
Whatever Happened To Free Trade?
The New York Times has reported that the US is to limit three categories of clothing imports from China. Industry executives expect last week's action to be the first in a string of similar quotas to be put on other categories from China, as the European Union, Turkey and Brazil are moving ahead with their own limits on Chinese apparel and textile imports.
The Bush Administration's decision involves imports of Chinese cotton knit skirts and blouses, cotton trousers, and cotton and man-made fiber underwear, valued at $624.5 million, which will be curtailed to protect U.S. businesses, the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, an interagency panel chaired by the Commerce Department, said on Friday.
Domestic textile companies viewed the new restrictions as an important buffer from harsh competition and importers saw them as expensive complications to the sourcing process. The government, while coming down on the side of the domestic industry, might also view new quotas as a pawn that could help move the rest of its trade agenda forward, particularly the pending Central American Free Trade Agreement.
CITA's action came after a self-initiated review begun in April and will result in limiting imports in the three categories to a 7.5 percent increase, based on the volume in the last 12 months. For the first three months of the year, imports of cotton trousers from China shot up 1,573 percent to 101.2 million square meters, according to government data. Cotton knit shirts and blouses jumped 1,277 percent to 42.8 million SME, while cotton underwear rose 307.2 percent to 60.6 million SME.
China agreed to the possibility of such constraints, known as safeguards, when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. The 30-year global quota system ended on Jan. 1 among WTO member countries after a 10-year phaseout. The European Union is also considering fresh restrictions on Chinese imports and Turkey and Brazil have imposed safeguard quotas on certain goods from China in recent months.
"They're rushing to put quotas in place and we're very disappointed," said Julia Hughes, vice president of international trade at the U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel. "The real losers are going to the consumers, since the early imposition of safeguards will merely push up prices."
Rather than helping U.S. industry, Hughes said it would be other Asian suppliers that would benefit from additional orders when China imports hit their ceiling. Representatives of the domestic textile industry, which has filed petitions for safeguards on several other categories, said U.S. jobs depended on the action.
"The unprecedented surge of Chinese imports imperiled tens of thousands of jobs," Auggie Tantillo, executive director of the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition, said in a statement. The U.S. textile industry has closed 18 plants and lost 17,000 jobs since quotas were dropped.
www.thenewyorktimes.com
16 May 2005