Yahoo, Thailand
HCM CITY, Nov 3 Asia Pulse – Vietnamese garment companies are missing out on a great opportunity to expand at home because of their preoccupation with export markets, an industry seminar said.
With a population of 82 million people, most of them young, Vietnam is considered a highly promising fashion market in Asia and globally.
A recent survey by the Vietnam Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) found domestic demand for fashion increasing 20-40 per cent annually.
Fifty per cent of consumers in Ho Chi Minh City spent 500,000 VND (US$29.50) to 1 million a month on clothing, according to a survey by Business Study and Assistance Centre (BSA).
With Vietnamese spending around 150,000 VND per month per capita, the market is estimated at US$150 million per year.
Vietnam ranked ninth among garment exporters. But Le Quoc An, Vinatex’s chairman, said domestic irms did not dominate the local market.
Around 140 popular international brands from France, Italy, the US, Spain, and other countries can be found in the country’s boutiques. Imported fashion items, in fact, hold a whopping 60 per cent market share.
Products from Asian countries like China, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Singapore too are very popular in Vietnam. Chinese clothes are very popular and competitive because of their reasonable prices, delegates heard.
Zen Plaza, a fashion hub in HCM City, recently did a survey based on the 6,000 to 7,000 receipts it make daily. It found more than 30 per cent were worth over 1 million VND and customers to be mainly 22-40 years old.
An said many garment firms merely did outsourcing work for foreign partners, earning little revenue. If they invested more in design and distribution capabilities, their revenues would burgeon, he said.
