Famous fashion brands have been present in Vietnam

And Japan’s Uniqlo says it will arrive in 2019. The fashion giant has acquired 35 percent of shares of Elise, a Vietnamese fashion brand for women. The deal, estimated to be in the millions of dollars, has been described as a move to pave the way to penetrate the Vietnamese market.

Satoshi Hatase, vice president of Uniqlo, said that Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar are targets in its current plan to expand markets.

Uniqlo believes that Southeast Asia will help the fashion brand gain higher growth rates because of the strong rise of the middle class.

Zara and H&M have been thriving in Vietnam. According to VIRAC, a market analysis firm, by the end of 2016, after four months of operation, Zara Vietnam had revenue of VND321 billion, or VND2.8 billion a day, and pre-tax profit of VND38 billion.

The achievement was described as ‘great’ as few international retail brands can make a profit in their first months in Vietnam.

According to Mitra Adiperkasa, in the first half of 2018, the revenue of Zara in Vietnam increased by 133 percent to VND950 billion, or VND5.3 billion a day.

Fredrik Famm, Southeast Asia director of H&M, said that Vietnam is a young and developing market which has made a great contribution to H&M’s development.

Pham Thai Binh from Savills HCMC said that foreign fashion brands have been prospering in Vietnam thanks to reasonable pricing strategy, strong brands, and trendy designs.

The appearance of strong foreign brands from Europe has seriously affected local brands. However, analysts say that Vietnamese brands had already been ‘choked to death’ by Chinese products before the arrival of the European brands. 

Ninomaxx, a brand of Thoi Trang Viet JSC, which created a new fashion trend for Vietnamese youth, has had to close many shops and undergo restructuring. Foci, a brand owned by Nguyen Tam Fashion, which developed its distribution network rapidly, could not compete because of Chinese goods.

However, other Vietnamese brands say they have advantages which allow them to stand firmly in the market.

An Phuoc, which sells Pierre Cardin under a franchise contract, has been developing well amid the ‘fast fashion storm’ as its targeted clients are businessmen who are unaffected by fashion trends. He said they want to wear branded clothes to “show their upper class in society”.

US$1=VND22,000

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