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Fashion bucks financial crisis
Bucking the economic downturn, designer clothes stores are proliferating in the capital.
Among the latest newcomers to Ha Noi are Ivy, NemNew, Alcado, Eva de Eva, Yoshino and JoJo Max.
The first designer store to open this year was Eva de Eva Fashion, which came to Ha Noi in February.
Following hot on Eva’s shoes was Yoshino, owned by IDF International Fashion Joint Stock Company. It opened new stores in March and April.
Meanwhile, in May Yoshino opened outlets on Quan Thanh and Kim Ma streets.
Not to be outdone, NemNew opened two stores on Ba Trieu and Lang Ha streets, bringing the total number of its stores in the capital to four.
"Due to world recession, some think that it is not a good time to expand our business. However, we don’t think so," said Nguyen Thanh Lam, managing director of IDF Internal Fashion Joint Stock Company.
"In previous years, it was difficult finding space to open a shop because the demand was so high. However, at the moment, lots of small stores have had to close so there are more unoccupied stores. Companies are therefore racing to open more shops," Lam said.
Competition in the fashion industry will further hot up when N&M, owned by Viet Fashion Company, which has some 20 stores in HCM City and Da Nang, comes to Ha Noi.
The company is planning to increase its portfolio to 30 in HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Ha Noi.
The Alcado director said more and more customers were coming to his stores, while Yoshino also said business was booming.
"The growth rate of our revenue in the first six months of this year is about 500 per cent compared with the same period last year," Lam said.
Business insiders said the key to success was to reduce the number of imports and to focus on quality.
"The number of office-fashion shops is big but the quality is not really good. They import much of their clothes from China. Although it reduces costs, it is not good in the long-term. The best way to exist, I think, is self-designing," Lam said.
VNS
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