Domestic market crucial to garment makers

The success of the Vietnamese apparel industry in recent years, even during the global economic downturn, can be attributed to its focus on the domestic as well as foreign markets.

“The apparel industry has never disregarded the domestic market,” according to Le Tien Truong, deputy general director of the Viet Nam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex).

Most apparel companies have for many years seen the local market as a venue in which they could show off their creativity, Truong said.

The industry has extended its distribution network to all 63 provinces and cities nationwide, including 15,000 sales points in rural areas and another 3,000 points at supermarkets and trade centres.

Many textile and garment companies have also increased investment in retail networks and built brand names in the domestic market.

Vinatex, WOW, Sanding, Foci, An Phuoc and Thai Tuan, for example, have built retail stores, worth VND30-40 billion each, to sell their own products.

The Viet Tien Garment Import-Export Corporation, one of the most successful, is well-known by many Vietnamese consumers thanks to its 12,140 shops nationwide.

The company’s deputy general director, Phan Van Kiet, said it had been offering a variety of products at low to high prices to meet consumers’different demand.

Late January, the company introduced a new office fashion trademark Viet Long, aimed at serving low-income earners like workers and students.

This collection sells shirts, trousers, T-shirts, jeans and ties at prices from VND80,000 to VND180,000.

Previously, Viet Tien sold products primarily for high – and medium-income earners with trademarks such as Sanciaro, Manhattan, TT-up and Smartcasual.

Tran Thi Sinh Duyen, director of the Hai Garment Company in northern Hai Phong City, said many companies had hired professional fashion designers which has helped diversify products for both rural and urban markets.

Despite the global recession last year, Viet Nam’s textile and garment industry still earned more than VND60 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent.

In an aim to reduce risks and develop in a sustainable manner, Truong of Vinatex said the apparel industry planned to use 30 per cent of its production capacity for the domestic market and 70 per cent for the overseas market between now and 2020.

Truong said it was also essential to reform management methods and improve production capacity to ensure that high quality products at highly competitive prices could be made.

If enterprises are able to accomplish this, domestic consumers would have even more confidence in local brands, he added.

Tags: Vietnam garment exports, Vietnam Garment industry