Top French lingerie brand Lejaby reclaims local sales rights, sets up Taiwan subsidiary

April 1, 2005

Leading French intimate apparel company Lejaby has reclaimed its Taiwan sales rights and established its own subsidiary here with the goal of molding itself into the top foreign lingerie brand in Taiwan within five years. Taiwan's import luxury lingerie sales have grown steadily over the last ten years, and the French corsetiere, having recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, sees great potential for further augmenting its revenues here.

The new Lejaby subsidiary opened its first sales point in Sunrise Department Store in Taipei. With new sales points slated for Takashimaya Department Store and Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store, it will set up twelve new points in Taiwan this year.

Retail sales of import lingerie have expanded nearly 400% from NTD 200 million in 1994 to NTD 950 million, according to figures provided by department stores. This growth rate far outpaces the 36% in growth in the domestic intimate apparel market in the same period. However, sales of domestic brands, including Swear and Audrey, reaching NTD 2.85 billion in 2003, are approximately three times bigger than import sales.

This discrepancy reveals a great opportunity for foreign brands to expand their revenues and market shares in Taiwan. For instance, import brands Pour Moi and Chantelle both achieved revenue growth rates of 10-20% in 2004. France's top-five luxury intimate apparel brands, Lejaby, Simone Perele, Chantelle, Aubade and Barbara, have all established a presence in Taiwan.

A marketing executive at Pour Moi in Taiwan attributes the continued growth in Taiwan's luxury lingerie market to women's increasing expendable income and the introduction of more youth oriented styles.

In fact, the continued increase in expendable income among women here is having a major impact on how most businesses approach Taiwan's consumer markets, with this phenomenon leading marketers to target women specifically for everything from cars to financial services such as credit cards and insurance.

(United Daily News)

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