Interviews
Foreign products trounce domestic apparel brands
17 Sep '08
2 min read
Surprisingly, foreign made apparels are more popular than those manufactured by domestic companies in Vietnam. The main reason being that mass manufactured garments are less competitive than those imported from China and qualitatively inferior to mid and high end apparels shipped from Thailand and Korea.
Vinatexmart was set up a few years ago with the specific purpose of selling Vietnamese branded apparel. A few other leading garment manufacturers had also proposed to make heavy investments to boost sales of local brands in the domestic markets and had hoped to raise the proportion of domestic brands from a poor 5 percent of all sales to nearly 30 percent.
However it was not to be. The reasons are not far to seek. According to experts from the industry the domestic apparel companies are weak in designing products and building brand names. Most of their designs are far behind current fashion trends. They have not invested enough time and money in developing brands which is a necessity.
Experts have pointed out five lacunae for the failure of local brands in the domestic market. One of them is not delivering on time. Second relates to not providing consistent sizes. The third matters around using leftovers from fabrics used for export purposes. According to them the designs and fabric material preferred by the Europeans and the Americans, may not suit the tastes of the local consumer.
One more reason they point out is that the local manufacturers do not maintain consistent prices and increase or decrease the prices at will which creates confusion in the minds of the trade as well as the consumer. The last and most important shortcoming, experts point to, is that they are not able to provide consistent quality in their apparels.
Domestic garment companies have even gone to the extent of having garments manufactured in China or simply import them and then attach local brand labels before dispatching them to the domestic markets.
Vinatexmart was set up a few years ago with the specific purpose of selling Vietnamese branded apparel. A few other leading garment manufacturers had also proposed to make heavy investments to boost sales of local brands in the domestic markets and had hoped to raise the proportion of domestic brands from a poor 5 percent of all sales to nearly 30 percent.
However it was not to be. The reasons are not far to seek. According to experts from the industry the domestic apparel companies are weak in designing products and building brand names. Most of their designs are far behind current fashion trends. They have not invested enough time and money in developing brands which is a necessity.
Experts have pointed out five lacunae for the failure of local brands in the domestic market. One of them is not delivering on time. Second relates to not providing consistent sizes. The third matters around using leftovers from fabrics used for export purposes. According to them the designs and fabric material preferred by the Europeans and the Americans, may not suit the tastes of the local consumer.
One more reason they point out is that the local manufacturers do not maintain consistent prices and increase or decrease the prices at will which creates confusion in the minds of the trade as well as the consumer. The last and most important shortcoming, experts point to, is that they are not able to provide consistent quality in their apparels.
Domestic garment companies have even gone to the extent of having garments manufactured in China or simply import them and then attach local brand labels before dispatching them to the domestic markets.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - Vietnam
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