Ek-Chai Distribution System Co, the operator of the Tesco Lotus hypermarket chain, is moving a step further in environmentally friendly fashion items to attract shoppers aware of the environment.
Tanarudh Techasripitoon, head of menswear at Tesco Lotus, poses with F&F green collections.
Tesco Lotus plans to reduce carbon emissions from its stores in Thailand by 50% by 2020.
The retailer's green fashion products began with menswear collections under the F&F label, which are made from recycled plastic bottles. Its jeans are also dyed in a new process to save water.
Thailand is the first country in Tesco's worldwide network to launch F&F green collections due to the readiness of the local garment industry. F&F green collections will also be introduced in Britain and other European markets.
"The popularity of green fashion is very strong in the UK and Japan and is now expanding to Asia," said Tanarudh Techasripitoon, head of menswear at Tesco Lotus.
Chanchai Sirikasemlert, director for technology at the Thailand Textile Institute, said green fashion is a big step forward for the Thai garment industry in terms of environmentally friendly raw materials and processes.
Thailand is keen on green garment technology and production but lacks a marketplace, so Tesco Lotus will bridge this gap and spur shopping on green fashion items.
Mr Tanarudh said fourto five polyethylene (PET) bottles are used to make each F&F fashion item. Old bottles go through sorting, cleaning, cutting and melting processes to obtain yarn ready for weaving into cloth, which is soft and comfortable like materials made from other synthetic fibres.
The dyeing process for green jeans saves about 48 litres of water per pair or more than 20,000 litres a month.
The F&F green products are priced in the same range as other menswear items.
"Our overall apparel production cost has risen by 5% on the back of higher labour wages and raw material prices. But we'll maintain our prices for another year, as consumer purchasing power is not quite good due to the impact of political tensions," Mr Tanarudh said.
During the initial stages, about 20-30% of F&F menswear products are environmentally friendly, but Tesco Lotus expects to provide 100% of all F&F men fashion items under this label in the next two to three years.
Tesco Lotus has the capacity to produce 150,000 green T-shirts, polo shirts and sporting shirts as well as 100,000 green jeans.
The hypermarket chain plans to apply its green concept to other product categories including home appliances, up from 300 items such as light bulbs and biodegradable bags available at its stores.