France is playing a leading role in pressing the EU to act against imports of Chinese textiles, but a French clothing company is showing how it is possible to survive and prosper by exporting to China.
The family company, La Bonneterie Cevenole company, based in the Ardeche region of southern France, specializes in up-market Montagu brand shirts made from an artificial fiber known as polyamide, and exports 80 percent of its 750,000 annual production to China, explained chief executive Pierre Gros.
The very rich
"Today in Europe, people buy Chinese clothing products, because they prefer to spend their money on telecommunications or overseas holidays, while in China, there is a category of very rich people who want to buy imported products even if they are expensive," Gros said.
La Bonneterie Cevenole, established in 1929, made a key strategic move in the 1970s with an early entry into China using a clever marketing strategy even though it could not legally sell its products inside the country.
Pierre Gros, during a trip to Hong Kong in the 1970s at the age of 24, was struck by the uniformity of the clothing and the intense curiosity of the Chinese about Western culture.
Billboard beginnings
"We realized that China could become a market and we had an idea to do advertising there, even though we didn't have the right to sell in China," Gros said.
For "almost nothing," and before the opening of the Chinese market, the company bought large billboard advertising spaces in railway stations and key locations in Guangzhou and Shanghai as well as television advertisements in Hong Kong and Macau.
"A lot of people live in Hong Kong and go back every year to visit their families in [mainland] China taking back presents, jeans or cigarettes. Our strategy at the time was to make the Montagu shirt part of the presents carried back by visitors," Gros said.
The campaign proved successful and company, which then had 20 stores in Hong Kong, saw its sales multiply.
"The market opened little by little, first in Hong Kong, then after four or five years with normal merchandise trade" the rest of China, Gross said.
Quality
Gros is not pessimistic about the future of the French textile industry because "France has an image of high-quality."
He said: "The Chinese want to buy French products which stand out from what they can buy at home."
However, the successful French exporter called for a "fairer treatment" by China where the tax on European clothing products is 14 to 17 percent compared to 5 percent in Europe.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
At least 35 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man plowed his car into pedestrians exercising around a sports center in the southern Chinese city of Zhuhai on Monday night. Footage showing bodies lying on the pavement appeared on social media in the hours after the crash, but had vanished by early Tuesday morning, and local police reported only “injuries.” It took officials nearly 24 hours to reveal that dozens had died — in one of the country’s deadliest incidents in years. China heavily monitors social media platforms, where it is common for words and topics deemed
Typhoon Usagi yesterday had weakened into a tropical storm, but a land warning issued by the Central Weather Administration (CWA) was still in effect in four areas in southern Taiwan. As of 5pm yesterday, Tropical Storm Usagi was over waters 120km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the southernmost tip of Taiwan proper, and was moving north at 9kph, CWA data showed. The storm was expected to veer northeast later yesterday. It had maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126kph, the data showed. The CWA urged residents of Kaohsiung, Pingtung County, Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) to remain alert to
RSS