Globaltrade.net - "Polish fashion sector still brand crazy.."

The Polish fashion wear industry, like most other retail sectors, has significantly transformed over the past two decades, partially down to the country's better economic performances, and expectations from shoppers.

The boom of the 1990s, when local and international brands charted the Eastern European markets, ended up in market consolidation. Currently, global companies and regional leaders dominate the Polish scene. Competition has since stiffened, consumers have become choosy and the Eurozone crisis has destabilised major international players. Also, investment in the fashion business has become more risky, costly and requiring long-term calculation. Branding is more important than ever.

Companies are either putting their money into brand building or are acquiring brands that are already recognised. The Polish fashion market has opened up to high-end international brands, which has caused major realignments.

Brand building

Polish brothers Arkadiusz and Krzysztof Bajolek, Jan Pilch and Adam Skrzypek have been particularly successful as brand builders. The Bajoleks and Jan Pilch successfully launched chain stores for fashion-conscious teenagers under the Mohito and House brands. They sold their company for around Euros100 million to LPP in 2008, when the chains jointly comprised 260 stores in Poland and 100 abroad. Later, instead of launching a new chain they decided to invest in existent ones because chains run under brands were losing popularity among Polish consumers. So, they created Bytom, Gino Rossi and Simple Creative Products (SCP).
The programme to develop brands as the European economic crisis hit was difficult, but turned out successfully in all but one case.
Bytom gained recognition as a conservative, high-end, men's wear brand. The fashion wear brand, SCP, too, won youth appreciation and soon became the pillar of the Gino Rossi group. Investor Pilch seems to recognise the limitations of the Gino Rossi brand and his strategy is to move it eastwards to Ukraine and Belarus where global luxury brands are less available.


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