Esprit Holdings Ltd (思捷環球控股), the once high-flying Hong Kong fashion retailer before it tumbled into years of losses, is planning a comeback in Asia, pivoting away from a fast-fashion strategy where it failed to compete with brands such as Zara and H&M.
The company is now focusing on better-quality clothing that is more expensive than fast-fashion apparel, but more sustainable, chief executive officer William Pak (朴義源) said in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday.
It is also returning to Asia after closing all 56 stores in the region in early 2020 amid COVID-19 lockdowns.
A pop-up store opened in Seoul in April, and a flagship outlet in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping hub is set to open next month.
While the focus would remain on e-commerce, the company wants to have at least one signature store in key Asian markets where it also has an online presence, Pak said.
It has launched online platforms in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the Philippines, and plans to expand into mainland China, Singapore and Thailand by the end of the year.
Esprit’s changing strategy comes as the fast-fashion model faces increasing criticism over environmental, social and governance issues such as wastefulness, questionable sourcing of materials and sweat-shop manufacturing.
The company, which became a global household name in the 1980s and 1990s, is hoping to create a clean and youthful image to return to those heydays of double-digit growth.
“We are really targeting exponential growth of revenue,” Pak said. “Esprit is not fast fashion and it took a long time for this to be realized in the company.”
Still, Esprit faces an uphill battle winning back market share in Asia, one of the world’s most competitive fashion markets crowded with global giants who are expanding aggressively physically and online.
While many fast-fashion brands like Zara and H&M are already switching to focus on sustainability, it also faces the rise of ultra-cheap online platforms such as China’s Shein, which is eyeing an initial public offering in the US as soon as 2024.
In its shift toward sustainability, Esprit has reduced its fashion cycles from 12 collections a year to just four, supplemented with limited-edition collections with other partners. It has also moved its headquarters back to Hong Kong to streamline communications and logistics, because most of the company’s suppliers are in Asia.
The strategy helped Esprit turn a profit last year, the first in five years, with net income of HK$381 million (US$48.5 million).
The EU and US are nearing an agreement to coordinate on producing and securing critical minerals, part of a push to break reliance on Chinese supplies. The potential deal would create incentives, such as minimum prices, that could advantage non-Chinese suppliers, according to a draft of an “action plan” seen by Bloomberg. The EU and US would also cooperate on standards, investments and joint projects, as well as coordinate on any supply disruptions by countries like China. The two sides are additionally seeking other “like-minded partners” to join a multicountry accord to help create these new critical mineral supply chains, which feed into
Elon Musk’s lieutenants have reached out to chip industry suppliers, including Applied Materials Inc, Tokyo Electron Ltd and Lam Research Corp, for his envisioned Terafab, early steps in an audacious and likely arduous attempt to break into the production of cutting-edge chips. Staff working for the joint venture between Tesla Inc and Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) have sought price quotes and delivery times for an array of chipmaking gear, people familiar with the matter said. In past weeks, they’ve contacted makers of photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools, according to the people, who asked not to
Japan approved ￥631.5 billion (US$3.97 billion) in additional subsidies to hasten Rapidus Corp’s entry into the high-stakes artificial intelligence (AI) chipmaking arena, ramping up support for a project widely regarded as a long shot. The capital is intended to bankroll Rapidus’ work for information technology firm Fujitsu Ltd, one of the initial customers that Tokyo hopes would get the signature endeavor off the ground. The new money raises the fees and investments that the government is injecting into the start-up to ￥2.6 trillion by the end of the current fiscal year to March next year, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and
The founder of Chinese property giant Evergrande Group (恆大集團) has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, a court said yesterday, the latest blow for what was once the country’s leading developer. Evergrande’s rise was propelled by decades of rapid urbanization and rising living standards, but in 2020, its access to credit dramatically narrowed when the government introduced curbs on excessive borrowing and speculation. The company defaulted in 2021 after struggling to repay creditors. Founder Xu Jiayin (許家印), 67, known as Hui Ka Yan in Cantonese, was reportedly held by police in 2023, with Evergrande saying he had been subjected to
RSS