Too Many Women Wearing Trousers

[cojones]

Cherilon bets on body hosiery

Published on December 01, 2004

Pipope Chokvathana, part of the new generation at the helm of the Cherilon stocking brand, will introduce a new line of body hosiery to bring the good times back to the stocking business after a 10-year slump.

Pipope, managing director of Newcity (Bangkok) Plc, said the new product line would be launched under a new sub-brand of Cherilon – Cherilon Intimate.

Duangdao Anunsaringkan, marketing manager of the company, said the stocking market slumped to Bt600 million this year after hitting a high of Bt800 million in 1996.

She said the problem was that women prefer to wear trousers now, which negates the need for stockings. The general economic downturn was also a factor, she said.

Cherilon is the all-time market leader with an 80-per-cent market share. Newcity is the only player in the domestic stocking market, she said, and produces all of Cherilon’s rival brands.

Duangdao said the company would generate growth in the stocking market by creating value-added products as fashion and health items.

Before the launch of the body-hosiery product, she said the company tested the market for three years by selling innerwear products under the Cherilon brand for basic use as an inner blouse.

Pipope said the body hosiery was being launched with the know-how of US-based Tyco Co Ltd. He said the strengths of the product were that it is seamless, stretchy, sheer and transparent, and sexy.

The new products are currently available at Central Chidlom, Central Pinklao and Central Bangna. They will be sold in three more branches of Central in December.

The products target women aged between 20 and 40 from middle to high-income status, and will cost between Bt300 and Bt2,000 each.

The company expects Bt100 million in revenue from the line by next year-end from an overall investment of Bt10 million.

Pipope said the company also plans to export the product to agents in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia by the middle of next year. By late next year, it plans to export to the United States and Europe. But 80 per cent of the revenue will come from the domestic market, he said.

Cherilon expects its revenue this year to grow 15 per cent to Bt450 million.

The revenue accounts for 80 per cent of the company’s total revenue, which is expected to be Bt600 million, up 5 per cent from last year.

Duangdao said the company missed its target of 6 per cent revenue growth during the first 10 months of this year as revenue grew only 2 per cent.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation