FASHION

Fashion

Fashion Industry Trends

In recent years the prevailing consensus among professional and academic economists about the future of the clothing trades in developed countries has been one which has emphasised the necessity of labour market adjustment, or for a contraction in the workforce. The necessity of such an adjustment 'stems from the natural competitive advantage of laborabundant developing countries in this labor-intensive industry' (www.abf.co.uk). Despite this logic industry and union lobbies have successfully pressed for protection in the US and European markets. Textiles and clothing 'have received more comprehensive and persistent protection than any other industrial sector' in recent decades according to Cline. With their eyes on the net welfare effects, however, this policy has met with almost universal disdain from practicing economists (www.ethicaltrade.org).

Primark Stores Limited is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods PLC, and Primark has become a well established family name in recent years. It has set a benchmark for many companies to follow in a segment of the market labelled the 'value sector'. The company was founded to produce clothing that is value for money, in other words you are paying for the quality of the product and not for the label that come attached.

The company to date has 162 stores located in the UK, Spain and Ireland. They trade under a company named “Penney's” Brand Company which is based in England and have done so since opening its first store and recently announced it has hired its 25,000th person among its stores (www.primark.co.uk).

Currently they have employed a separate fashion designer in each major city (e.g.: London and Glasgow) and thus keeping up with local trends and fashion designs. They are currently planning to open another 20 stores in 2007 alone with regards to expansion and are looking into improving the quality of clothing and service already offered by the company and to become more ethical by paying everyone's wages fairly according to the job that they do with relation to other companies in the same markets.

Product Information and Marketing

Primark is one of today's top clothes retailing stores in the UK in the terms of market share, in actual fact the 5th largest clothes retail store, and is number two in the “value clothing retail market”. These are just a few of the examples of how well Primark is keeping ahead of the market and all the changes that take place in the clothes retailing industry today. Primark endeavour to remain ahead of the market in correctly predicting what the next new fashion trend is going to be. The company do this by hiring fashion gurus to accompany their store managers to travel round Europe. They do this to explore the newest looks fashions which are then re-assessed so Primark can make the clothes giving them their own unique look and still keeping the manufacturing prices down (www.primark.co.uk).

Primark is also constantly continuing to keep up with the high demand for their product by increasing their selling space by over 70%, and have also opened an additional 52 stores in ...