French label takes a crack at robing China's 'Little Emperors'
French label takes a crack at robing China's 'Little Emperors'
By Lew Siew Ying
SHANGHAI (AFP): French label Naf Naf entered the Chinese children's wear market Friday, hoping it will turn a profit in two years as Chinese get used to the idea of splurging on their single children.
The Naf Naf range was launched at Shanghai Orient Shopping Center, one of three department stores in Shanghai which have provided rent-free space in return for a 30-percent-cut on sales.
Groupe Albert, the manufacturer, is supplying the clothes on a consignment basis while Logical is picking up the custom duties tab of 500,000 yuan (US$60,240) a year to give the brand a chance of survival in a price sensitive market.
Attitudes are changing but adults still balk at spending as much on children's clothes as they do on their own, although providing for the needs of their so-called "Little Emperors" top Chinese parents' list of priorities.
China's strict birth control policies limit most couples to just one child.
"It will take two years to popularize the brand. At the same time, the city is developing so we will not lag behind," said Chen Jinqiu, representative of Logical, the French trading firm bringing in the label.
"For a Chinese family, 80 percent of the disposable income after deducting for housing and food is spent on children. But buying something that costs as much as an adult's clothes is still too much for Chinese consumers," Chen said.
She said Logical would lose money initially on Naf Naf clothes and would have to subsidize the line with its profitable range of scarves and with profits from contract manufacturing of undergarments.
"It is a difficult market. It will take a lot to conquer the market, perhaps five or 10 years, so we have to start immediately and not waste time, " said Patrick Sarrazin, the company's chief representative.
Chen said that although the market was small presently, there was a growing segment of local managers who easily made 15,000 yuan a month, who can afford to dress up their children.
"There is a trend to compare with what other people's children are wearing," said Xu Wanhua, manager of the shopping center's children department.
Chicken
Several foreign labels, including Walt Disney and a locally- manufactured Elle range, have entered the nascent market to position themselves to reap the benefits of a "hatch quick" syndrome that has gripped Chinese parents.
"It's just like in a modern hatchery where chickens are hatched super fast. Chinese parents feed their children with nutritious food, dress them up and make them learn many things so that they can become dragons," Xu said.
"They are willing to spend on expensive educational aids and toys. Even if they have financial difficulties they will spend on children. They may forego a big screen television set to buy a piano for music lessons," she said.
China's one-child policy has put pressure on parents to ensure that their children are given all help -- physical as well as psychological -- to enable them to get ahead in life.
Jerry Hadd of the U.S. polling company Gallup Organization's Beijing office said that within the next two to three years there would be a concerted effort to cultivate children as future consumers and to capitalize on the one-child policy.