Aussie kids brands wow Europe

At the recent 'Pitti Imagine Bimbo' fair in Florence (1-3 July) two leading Australian childrenswear brands were successfully launched into the European market.
Gumboots and Billiecart joined a stable of brands which included Mini Minors. They were marketed by Effegi SRL in a deal brokered by Stenton International, the marketing arm of Australian garment management consultant, Stenton Creed Pty Ltd.
The Pitti Bimbo Trade Fair, celebrating its 30th anniversary, presented the latest summer 2006 collections for children, babies and teens. Over 8,000 visitors attended the three day fair which is considered the premier event for childrenswear in Yerp.
"Having terrific contacts from the days of managing the Western Europe operation of Oshkosh kidswear and of being the catalyst for launching of Mini Minors into Europe in 2001, we were asked by our former distributors to bring some more Australian brands to Europe," said Robert Hartman, managing director of Stenton Creed. "Hard to believe, the strongest request was for Aussie swimwear to Iceland and summer clothing to Italy.
"We looked for the best brands in Australia that could support a global business and last year approached two of them with a cohesive plan to fast track Europe," Hartman said. "An essential part of the strategy was to find a well-established distributor, ideally with Australian experience and connections, and to have an initial launch at the Summer Pitti Bimbo Fair in 2005.
Enrico Giunti, president of Rome based distributor Effegi SRL, jumped at the chance when he saw catalogues of Billiecart and Gumboots. "My family company was successful over five years in growing the Oshkosh business in Italy to become over half of total European sales," he said. "Since 2001, as the distributor of Sydney based Mini Minors, we've built European sales to be bigger than those in it home country, Australia. We have proven many times that kidswear with an Australian summer look is very well accepted in our markets."
The reaction to the three brands shown in the exclusive "Pitti Fort" section of the fair was "phenomenal", to quote Giunti. "More than 5000 customers out of the 7800 attendees walked through our stand. They represented 1500 companies from 20 different countries but the significant number was that my top 1000 customers all came to see us. That was triple the record number through the Oshkosh stand in 1999."
Effegi's stand was designed as an "Australian isle" theme with road signs and boomerang fixtures displayed with great Roman flair. All customers received giveaways including koalas, mini road signs and Australian designed pencils. It was the perfect fusion of an Australian feel with great Italian design.
The brands were officially launched at one of the oldest villas in Florence built in the 16th Century on 18 hectares of land where a gala dinner was held for 100 of the top buyers from all over Europe. "Better than the Versace launch last night," commented one Australian visitor.
"We expect to sell more than 200,000 pieces in this summer launch, and the plan is to grow that five fold over the next five years," Giunti said.
Asked if he was interested in handling any more Australian brands, Giunti said that he planned to launch an Australian men's surf /street brand in summer next year and would develop the existing stable of three kids brands more fully before he considered any others.