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| Issue date:01/06/2007 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Jun 2007 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
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| Both brands and retailers are looking east for future growth as European markets for women's lingerie feel the pinch, Adrian Wilson reports. |
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| La Perla Pure Black lingerie set made from a new fabric called Papillon |
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The West European market for women's lingerie has experienced a sluggish growth as an increased number of suppliers entered the already cut-throat competition.
Over an 11-year period between 1994 and 2005, the overall lingerie market in west Europe has risen by just 1%, with an estimated value of US$11.27 billion in 2005.
The prices of bras fell during that period in all national markets, with the exception of Spain, although the actual value of the bra market increased by 7% from US$5.8 billion in 1994 to US$46.3 billion in 2005.
The briefs market is also becoming intensely competitive as sales of multi-packs in supermarkets exert downward price pressure on suppliers.
Against this background, there has been a flurry of merger and acquisition activity, culminating in the divestment by Sara Lee of its European branded intimate apparel business to Dim Branded Apparel (DBA) in February 2006 and its UK-based Courtaulds private label apparel business in May 2006.
However, with the markets in Southeast Asia keep expanding, especially in China and to a lesser extent India, it is estimated that the global lingerie market will grow by 9% between 2003 and 2010.
Key market players
Currently, Germany has the largest national lingerie market in the region, followed by Italy, the UK, France and Spain.
Prices across the markets have narrowed over the past few years and this is expected to continue as more multiples become pan-European and adopt common pricing policies.
Key brands include Sara Lee, Triumph and Warnaco, with major retailer labels including Marks & Spencer, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Zara.
The largest manufacturer of lingerie in Europe is Swiss-headquartered Triumph International, which had reported sales of US$1.6 billion in 2005. Japan is its largest market globally while Germany is its biggest market in Europe.
The company marked the sale of its billionth pair of briefs during the year and its Sloggi brand is now said to be available in over 20,000 retail outlets worldwide.
Triumph's Doreen bra is believed to be the best selling bra in the world, and available in 63 different cup sizes and fittings.
The steepest decline in the price of lingerie in Europe in recent years has been seen in Italy where the textile industry in general has been shrinking, leading to an ongoing relocation to countries with less expensive labour costs. This is a process that had been witnessed in other European countries such as the UK.
One of Italy's leading high-end lingerie brands is La Perla, which has an annual sales turnover of around US$175 million.
The brand has recently opened its first store in Hong Kong and plans to have a further eight stores in China before the end of 2008.
Lingerie-wise, it has recently launched the Pure Black collection made entirely from a new fabric called Papillon, containing Black Lycra, which is the naturally black elastomeric fiber developed by Invista for natural looking black and dark fabrics that do not fade with washing.
The developer of Black Lycra, Bergamo-based Jersey Lomellina has also come up with a range of "well-being" fabrics for lingerie. "Effect", for instance, is a stretch polyamide microfiber fabric with a fluffy and soft feel which contains microcapsules of energising ginseng, while "Elisir" and "Enjoy" are cotton/elastane products incorporating Seacell fiber which contains skin enhancing marine algae.
"Emphasis" is another stretch polyamide microfiber product with a soft, velvety handle containing a body lotion treatment consisting of essential oil, Ylang-Ylang, said to have soothing and aphrodisiacal effects.
Opening of H&M's first store in Hong Kong in March this year |
Also announcing a first store opening in Hong Kong in March this year was the clothing company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), which is a significant lingerie retailer in Europe. This was followed by the opening of two new stores in Shanghai this April. During this fall, H&M will further open three new stores in Hong Kong.
By the end of 2005 the company had almost 1,200 stores in 22 countries across Europe and North America, with more than 50,000 employees. Headquartered in Stockholm, it had 2005 sales of over US$10 billion in 2005.
Germany is its biggest market, where it has 288 stores, but in recent years Germany's portion of the group's turnover has been falling, balanced by growth in France and Spain. North America is also an important expansion market for H&M, where it now has over 100 stores.
H&M has approximately 100 designers who work with a team made up of 60 pattern designers, and around 100 buyers and a number of budget controllers to create its clothing collections for women, men, children and teenagers.
H&M has 22 production offices, in Europe, Asia, Central America and Africa, which are responsible for contacts with the 700 independent suppliers, primarily in Asia and Europe. It does not have any factories of its own.
Lead times can vary from two to three weeks up to six months. For high-volume fashion basics and children's wear, the company says it is advantageous to be able to place orders far in advance. Trendier garments in smaller volumes require considerably shorter lead times.
Spain's Inditex Group opened its first Zara store in Beijing, located at The Place shopping mall, in this February. The store has more than 1,500 square metres of retail space, spreading over two floors, with the ground floor entirely dedicated to women's wear.
Zara opened its first store in China in May 2004 in Hong Kong, where it now has five stores. In February 2006, it launched another store on one of the buziest streets of Shanghai, Nanjing Xi Lu, which was followed by a second one at Times Square mall.
The Inditex Group is now present in 64 countries, with more than 3,100 stores. In the Asia-Pacific area, it already has 59 stores across China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.
With 2005 sales of ￡ 7.8 billion (or US$15.28 billion), Marks & Spencer (M&S) is the UK's largest clothing retailer. It sells one out of every three bras purchased in the country.
The company will open two new outlets in Taiwan this year through its joint-venture vehicle with Taiwan's President Chain Store Corporation. It has also recently set up new offices in Hong Kong, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka to source more efficiently.
In lingerie, the company has moved to fewer brands and continues to innovate. It was the first to introduce the seamless moulded bra and has greatly expanded its range of "Shapewear" after the success of the "Magic Knicker", which makes full use of the performance of Lycra to provide flattering shape for the wearer. Recently the company has launched a collection of post-surgery lingerie for women who have undergone breast surgery.
The Marks and Spencer Buying Academy, set up in 2005, has now trained 900 buyers, designers and merchandisers to ensure that they maintain tight control on all aspects of buying. The company sets challenging weekly targets to control stock levels at every part of the supply chain, to improve availability and reduce levels of marked down product.
As a result, M&S has also significantly reduced the number of faulty products returned to the manufacturer.
During 2006 the company added luxury to its lingerie range with the launch of the Autograph Collection featuring fine intricate lace and the best quality silks and satins.
The collection aims at British women who want to wear designer lingerie every day but are looking for a range that also offers good value. Designed entirely by the in-house team at M&S, the collection has a refined silhouette offering understated glamour with a sophisticated, subtle Italian flair, but at low prices.
Special technology for bras
Bras accounted for 56% of the total value of the European lingerie market in 2005 while the market for briefs represented 29%.
The high value share of bras, however, reflects the fact that their average price, at US$17.58 per item, was several times that of briefs, at US$3.60. Bras, of course, are much more complex items than briefs to produce - and an area where technology keeps developing.
German flat bed knitting specialist Karl Mayer, for instance, has developed a bra with fewer seams on its ML 35C multibar raschel machine.
Fewer seams in a garment mean fewer making-up sequences and make the garment more comfortable to wear. Mayer's latest development is said to offer all the advantages of the latest generation of lace machines and enable completely new products to be developed with the possibility of incorporating specific stretch zones into the garment. The maximum shog path of the machine's string bars of 170 needles and the use of multiple yarn guides provide plenty of scope for designing garments.
Single piece
Apart from the straps and the fastening (see the illustrated bra made with Karl Mayer's machine), the entire bra is produced as a single piece, from the side sections to the cups. No seams are required at the edges, nor at the transition points between the individual components. This not only improves comfort and reduces making-up costs, it also prevents the bra from unattractively showing through the garment worn on top.
The end result of the Karl Mayer flat bed knitting manufacturing sequences, which involve production of the fabric pieces, moulding and making-up |
The design has been complemented by using elastane in three different counts - Lycra in a count of 156 dtex and Lycra bright, Type 260, in a count of 44 dtex were used in the pattern bars, and Lycra clear, Type 136, in a count of 310 dtex was used in the ground guide bar. The elastane yarn is simply situated in the fabric in a predetermined arrangement to produce an elastic ground. When combined with the abstract flower motif, the textured pattern yarn provides support and stability in the area under the bust. The thin, stretch, comfortable edges around the top of the bra-cup create an attractive décolleté. The shape is perfect and there are no constricting or protruding points.
Contours
The edges are worked to match the contours of the bra during production and form a wide band in the lower section of the bra, which means that the bands do not have to be incorporated in a subsequent processing stage. This reduces the number of seams, which can often make a garment feel uncomfortable. Another advantage in terms of increasing production efficiency is that the cutting layout is designed to minimize waste. The bras are produced so that two are arranged in a staggered relationship to each other in the fabric piece, which maximizes material usage and ensures that the yarn can be incorporated to suit the functional requirements of the garment.
Susa Vertriebs GmbH in Germany was responsible for carrying out thermal moulding and the subsequent making-up processes and reports that the product behaves perfectly during processing.
Hot melt
Cavitec, part of the Swiss Santex Group, reports that Hong Kong lingerie specialist Regina Miracle is now running six of its hot melt lamination machines and plans to install further units.
These machines, says Santex Group vice-president Antonio Staffoni, are now replacing conventional solvent spraying for a number of reasons.
"The advantages of hot melt lamination compared to traditional spray technology are many," he says, "including three times the productivity. In addition, in the manufacture of bras and other lingerie items, they ensure regularity and evenness in coating and complete reproducibility of process, in addition to more reliable bonding and the durability to withstand a higher number of laundry cycles."
Regina Miracle has a production capacity of 10 million pairs of moulded bra cups per month.
While North America and Europe remain important mature markets, bra producers have turned to Asia for cheaper manufacture and also a higher rate of sales growth.
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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