Outerwear. - Business Location Switzerland

7.4.3.1.4 Home shopping companies
Over 40 companies are active in the home shopping sector (operations
via direct-mail, catalogues, television and Internet) like:
Grattan and Freemans; both companies are part of the German
mail-order giant Otto Versand; Empire Stores is owned by the
French PRP; Littlewoods. Most of the UK retail organisations
operate also via Internet, mail-order and home shopping, of which
Next Directory - is the most successful.
Market share: 8% in 2008, Trend: Decreasing
7.4.3.1.5 Hyper- and supermarkets
Supermarkets tend to offer convenience and competitive prices.
And because almost everyone needs to go grocery shopping,
supermarkets have a large base of customers who regularly
visit their stores. This has even resulted in some supermarkets
attempting to lead and create fashion trends in clothing. According
to Verdict, growth in sales of clothing at supermarkets will be
driven by two factors.
• Supermarkets will start to sell a greater range of higher priced
clothing. This will help them attract a wider spread of consumers
and allow them to take more business from specialist players
• Supermarkets will achieve growth in sales of clothing via online
shopping. Many grocers are already active in Internet sales and
have a comprehensive delivery network in place.
The two major retailers in the supermarket sector are ASDA (328
stores selling clothing in the UK and part of American Wal-Mart;
and Tesco (585 superstores but not all stores are selling clothing).
They increasingly follow the trend of offering non-food products as
do, for instance, the leading French hypermarkets. ASDA’s assortment
includes its successful George clothing range, which is also
sold by Wal-Mart. Another grocer chain is Sainsbury’s (selling its
TU clothing collection in 300 of the in total more than 800 stores).
The German discounters Lidl (450 stores) and Aldi (360) and,
Makro Cash & Carry (33 stores) are also active in the UK.
Market share: 7% in 2008, Trend: Increasing
119 l Outerwear 2010
7.4.3.2 Sales intermediaries
7.4.3.2.1 Clothing manufacturers
In addition to retailers and wholesalers that import clothing to
the UK, in some cases UK manufacturers partly outsource their
production activities to manufacturers abroad. Due to the strong
increase of production costs in the UK, clothing manufacturers
(mainly brands) have started outsourcing to Eastern Europe and
Northern Africa. Many products (e.g. most of the knitted outerwear)
are bought from Asia and Turkey.
British clothing ‘manufacturers’ have turned in being more
management and marketing units than producers. They mainly
concentrate on the design and fashion as well as on marketing
and sales.
The brands sell their products to selected distribution channels
that correspond with their marketing strategy. In any case, practically
all British clothing brands source products abroad in one
way or another and offer various sales opportunities for clothing
manufacturers from abroad.
7.4.3.2.2 Central buying associations
Co-ordinated buying through central buying associations is a way
for smaller UK retailers to gain more purchasing power. Since the
clothing market in the UK is highly concentrated, with only a few
big players who mainly buy directly from clothing manufacturers
and there is little market share for small independent shops, the
importance of central buying associations in the UK is still low.
In Great Britain, importers/wholesalers have often taken over the
‘buying function’ for smaller retailers, as the latter do not have the
know-how and the means to import goods on their own.
7.4.3.2.3 Sales agents
There are different methods of indirect distribution from abroad
to the various clothing retailers in the UK. One option is that local
‘agents’ identify the clothing suppliers abroad, but the UK retailer
is still the one who negotiates with their in-house buying team and
organises all the logistics including shipping etc. Most often British
retailers use several forms of indirect contacts.