In a move designed to cement its place in the Chinese sports apparel manufacturing before WTO quotas are lifted (SEW_0424), Yue Yuen has formed a joint venture with Luen Thai Holdings, a privately held fashion apparel manufacturing company. The new company, Yuen Thai, plans to leverage Yue Yuen’s connections in the sporting goods market with Luen Thai’s know-how in apparel production.

The company alluded to “international sports brands” which it has already lined up as customers, and plans to engage in design, product development, manufacturing, as well as information technology and logistics management. Yuen Thai said it targets to become one of the largest apparel suppliers in this sector within the next few years.

Edward Ku, Executive Director of Yue Yuen, said, “The collaboration once again reinforces our strategy of expanding our product range and market share into apparel regime. With our long history and understanding in working with our customers and manufacturing and supply chain expertise in the apparel regime offered by Luen Thai, we are confident in providing the best service to our customers.”

Yue Yuen and Luen Thai each will own 50% of the joint venture, but no details on the size of the investment were provided. For the first half of the year Yue Yuen sold $1.26 billion in wholesale merchandise to various brands. Approximately one out of every six pairs of athletic shoes sold world-wide was manufactured by Yue Yuen.


>>>With these two giants teaming up, and quotas disappearing, there may not be much room for competition