Pepe Jeans, a 40-year-old jeans brand from the United Kingdom, will expand aggressively in Asia over the next five years, with Thailand being its priority market.
Bart Denolf Bruyneel (left), international director of Pepe Jeans London, joins Gerard McGurk, senior vice-president for general goods merchandising of Robinson Department Store, during the opening of first Pepe jeans store at CentralWorld yesterday.
Bart Denolf Bruyneel, the international director of Pepe Jeans London, said the company is looking for business opportunities in Asia and plans to open 50 new stores in the region over the next five years, bringing the total to 550 globally.
Another 100 new outlets will be opened in other regions.
"After 15 trips to Thailand over the past three to four years, we saw huge potential in this market and expect to have 10 flagship stores in the kingdom over the next five years," he said during his Bangkok visit.
Yesterday, Pepe Jeans opened its largest flagship store in Southeast Asia at CentralWorld shopping complex in Bangkok. The 160-square-metre store sells jeans, jackets, polo shirts and accessories for men and women at prices that are almost the same as those in the UK.
The company appointed Robinson Department Store Plc to be its sole distributor here.
Gerard McGurk, senior vice-president for general goods merchandising at Robinson, said the company spent 20 million baht to open the first Pepe Jeans store.
The company expects to have five stores and 19 shop-in-shops at Robinson department stores next year.
"Thailand is not only an important market but also a production base for Pepe Jeans to supply to our stores worldwide. Thailand is one of the sourcing bases for Pepe Jeans along with China, India and Turkey," Mr Bruyneel said.
Currently, Pepe Jeans products are available in 70 countries worldwide. Apart from Thailand, the company plans to open stores in Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea.
Pepe Jeans expects its sales contribution from Asia to rise to 15% over the next five years, up from a very small proportion at present.
Mr McGurk said Robinson projects 30-million-baht sales from Pepe Jeans by the end of this year.
"Demand of fashion jeans sold at department stores continues to grow by 12-15% per year. Whether the economy is good or not, jeans never die from the fashion market," he said, adding Thais almost double their spending on jeans to 5,000-6,000 baht per bill.
Mr Bruyneel said competition in the denim world is very tough due to the entry of new players. But Pepe Jeans is very well established in Europe and has a strong presence in Latin America.
The company branched out to Japan recently, and has products in India, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.