2005/06/02 | FT豪华品牌系列11：姬龙雪新主人zt
类别(Finance) | 评论(2) | 阅读(299) | 发表于 09:32
亚力山德拉•哈尼(Alexandra Harney)香港报道
2005年06月2日 星期四

姬龙雪(Guy Laroche)的新主人，YGM贸易公司(YGM Trading)座落于香港服装旧区一座破败且有40年历史的办公楼内。正是在这里，YGM的董事总经理陈永燊(WS Chan)掌管着一个服装帝国，他的旗下囊括运动装品牌欢腾(Hang Ten)、男装马狮龙(Michel Rene)，以及雅格狮丹(Aquascutum)和阿什沃斯(Ashworth)的特许销售权。去年夏季，该公司又支付1700万美元，将法国奢侈品牌姬龙雪也纳入麾下。


“这一价格适当，名字也合适，”一身休闲打扮的陈先生悠闲地坐在他办公室旁的会议室中说道。 YGM有一个明确的信条，即钱要花在刀刃上。当它的银行卡尔洋(Calyon)提议它收购姬龙雪时，该公司一直在物色收购对象。姬龙雪这一品牌与陈先生脑海中的策略收购恰好吻合。

他解释说：“无论是知名老牌子，还是崭露头角的新 牌子，只要它有市场价值，只要我们觉得它在东亚市场有潜力(就符合我们的要求)。”

这家香港集团立即为该品牌注入新的活力。它聘用了原名为埃尔韦•莱热(Hervé Leger)的设计师埃尔韦•勒鲁(Hervé Leroux)；集团原先所忽略的时装表演也重新登场；新的旗舰店在巴黎弗朗索瓦一世大街(rue François 1er)选定地址。

并且不知怎的，希拉里•斯万克(Hilary Swank)在出席奥斯卡颁奖典礼时，身穿一袭蓝色的姬龙雪露背长裙，而不是众所期待的卡尔文•克莱恩(Calvin Klein)礼服裙。此事成为八卦专栏的一个话题，也为该商标作了一次成功的宣传。

陈先生计划在亚洲、尤其是在中国扩大该品牌的影响。“我们对中国期望很大。对身居香港的人来说，在中国经营商店比较容易。那里就像二、三十年前的日本一样。[大陆的中国人]仍然渴望拥有许多名牌。”

富有的中国购物者对时尚的热衷正吸引大量品牌涌入大陆地区。乔治•阿玛尼(Giorgio Armani)、古姿(Gucci)、普拉达(Prada)和LMVH都在奋力挤进中国市场。

YGM是长江制衣厂有限公司(Yangtzekiang Garment Manufacturing)的缩写，这是一家成立于20世纪40年代的香港纺织品公司，它的目标市场略有不同。 “我们是一个高级品牌，但并不是终极奢侈品牌，” 陈先生说。该公司曾表示，它计划在未来的3至5年里，投资4千万美元开设约400家商店，其中包括在北京和上海等城市开设10家姬龙雪门店。其产品将在欧洲和中国制造，据纺织品管理人员和设计师表示，上述两地在生产高端服装方面，质量已有显著提高。YGM在中国南部肮脏的工业城市东莞有一家工厂，该厂大约有1000名工人，公司可能会以此作为生产基地。

然而，陈先生表示，在中国制造高级品牌需要有严格的监督。“如果你不盯着看，事情会变得很糟糕。他们会加快生产进度，用做一件衣服的时间做出五件来，你得到的只是一堆废物。”

陈先生给勒鲁先生充分的自由，让他尽情构想姬龙雪的前景。这位董事总经理似乎更乐意留在金融领域。当问及他打算将新收购的公司保持多久时，他以玩笑作答。

“我们想尽快赚钱，因此最好就在今晚，”他大笑起来，然后又略微严肃地补充说：“我们并没有任何时间表。”

这似乎并不足以让陈先生停下脚步，他说自己仍然在寻求收购其它品牌的机会。 “我们想要知识产权，”他说，“而不是实际的生产。”


Guy Laroche
Alexandra Harney in Hong Kong
Published: June 1 2005 22:32 | Last updated: June 1 2005 22:32

Guy Laroche’s new owner, YGM Trading, operates from a shabby 40-year-old office building in Hong Kong’s old garment district. From this perch, WS Chan, YGM’s managing director, oversees an empire that includes sports wear brand Hang Ten, clothier Michel Rene and the licences for Aquascutum and Ashworth. Last summer, it paid US$17m to add French luxury label Guy Laroche to this stable.

“The price was right. The name was right,” says Mr Chan of the purchase, relaxed in a casual shirt and trousers in a conference room next to his office.

YGM clearly believes in spending money where it matters. The company had been looking for companies to acquire when Calyon, its bankers, proposed Guy Laroche. The label fitted with Mr Chan’s vision for a strategic purchase.

“It can be a well-known name, it can be up-and-coming name, so long as it carries a premium for that market, so long as it’s a name that we feel has potential for the East Asian market,” he said.

The Hong Kong group wasted no time in breathing new life into the label. Hervé Leroux, the designer formerly known as Hervé Leger, was hired. Fashion shows, which the group had allowed to slip, were brought back. A site for a new flagship store on Paris’s rue François 1er, was selected.

And somehow, Hilary Swank turned up at the Academy Awards in a backless blue Guy Laroche dress, rather than the anticipated Calvin Klein number, becoming a gossip column item and publicity coup for the label.

Mr Chan plans to build the brand’s presence in Asia, especially in China. “China we can expand a lot. For someone in Hong Kong, it’s easy to manage shops in China. It’s like Japan 20, 30 years ago. [Mainland Chinese] still want a lot of premium brands.”

Wealthy Chinese shoppers’ passion for fashion is driving many a label into the mainland these days. Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Prada and LMVH are all making aggressive pushes into China.

YGM, which stands for Yangtzekiang Garment Manufacturing, a Hong Kong textile company founded in the 1940s, is aiming for a slightly different market.

“We are a premium brand but not the ultimate luxurious,” says Mr Chan. The company has said it is planning to spend up to US$40m to open about 400 stores in the next three to five years, including 10 Guy Laroche outlets in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

The goods will be made in Europe and China, where textile executives and designers say the quality of manufacturing for higher-end garments has improved markedly. YGM has a factory in Dongguan, a grimy industrial city in southern China, with about 1,000 workers, that it might use for manufacturing in the future.

But making premium brands in China requires tight supervision, Mr Chan says. “If you turn your head, it can be terrible. They will speed up the work so they can produce five pieces in the time of one and then you get rubbish.”

Mr Chan has given Mr Leroux a free hand in creating his vision for Guy Laroche. The managing director seems happier in the world of finance. Asked how long he planned to hold on to his latest acquisition, he answered with a joke.

“We want to make money as quickly as possible so the time frame is hopefully tonight,” he laughs, adding more soberly: “There is no timetable.”

That does not be appear to be enough to stop Mr Chan, who says he is still on the acquisition trail for other brands. “We want IP,” he says, referring to intellectual property. “We don’t want real manufacturing.”

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