Business

Wednesday May 21, 2008

Colin’s plans 70 stores in S-E Asia

By EUGENE MAHALINGAM


PETALING JAYA: Turkey-based Colin’s & Loft, a specialist in jeans and casual wear, intends to set up 70 retail stores in South-East Asia within three years.

Late last year, it opened its flagship retail store at Sunway Pyramid and concessionaire counters at Metrojaya stores in Berjaya Times Square and MidValley Megamall.

Colin’s & Loft (M) Sdn Bhd managing director Randy Ong said the company’s plan was to make Malaysia a platform to expand its presence in the region.

“We chose Malaysia as our flagship for South-East Asia because of various reasons. Malaysia, as a country, is very stable. The currency is strong and the public has good spending power also,” he told StarBiz.

Randy Ong

Ong also said having a free trade zone like Port Klang made it easy to distribute merchandise to other countries.

“Colin’s in Malaysia will be the master franchise for the brand in South-East Asia,” Ong said, adding that its range of clothes was fully imported.

“About 80% of Colin’s merchandise are from Turkey, while the rest come from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, India and China.”

Colin’s flagship store at Sunway Pyramid, which opened in December, had seen promising response, said Ong.

“We sold about 1,700 pieces of merchandise in December. Up until March, we sold over 5,000 pieces.”

Ong said setting up shop at Sunway Pyramid was ideal.

“There are two international hotels here, an international conventional hall, a theme park and the mall serves locals, tourists and even business people,” he said.

About 50% of the merchandise sold at its Sunway Pyramid store comprises denim wear. The jeans sold come in a variety of 80 different designs, over 100 types of cuttings and washes as well.

Apart from jeans, Colin’s also sells shoes, blouses, shirts and a variety of casual-wear accessories.

Colin’s currently has over 400 stores in Europe and over 1,000 concessionaire counters worldwide.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story
  • Bookmark and Share