Cheetah prowls UK market

Established fashion swimwear brand Cheetah has secured its first export market in the label's 25-year history.
Cheetah Swimwear designer Heidi Vandervord told Ragtrader she had signed deals with several UK retailers last month after appointing Aussie-born UK fashion agent Margot Davies to represent the brand in Europe.
Online swimwear and lingerie retailer Figleaves and several boutique retailers in including King's Road Sporting Club, Austique and Carols in London and Iluba Bay in Chester, North West England, have placed orders for the Cheetah range.
Vandervord, who recently visited the UK to meet her new UK clients, also revealed department store Selfridges was interested in stocking the brand, although no order had been placed to date.
Exporting to the UK will allow Vandervord to develop a [Southern Hemisphere] winter business that is as strong as her summer business.
"If a design is winning and working here [for summer], I can then sell it into the UK. It also helps me to sell off leftover stock and fabrics and so the Cheetah business will become more commercially viable," she said. "I will start the export business off slowly and only focus on the UK in the first year, but there are plans to target the rest of Europe and the US after that."
Cheetah, purchased by publicly listed Brazin Limited six years ago, was originally a girl's surf brand.
But Brazin appointed Vandervord to overhaul the brand in 2002, and it has since become renowned as a sexy and glamorous mid-market swimwear range targeted at women aged in their twenties and thirties.
The collection, which retails from $60 to $149, is stocked by all 63 Myer stores, by the 150-strong Bras 'n' Things chain (owned by Brazin) and by more than 200 independent retailers across Australia.
Vandervord also revealed she planned to design and launch a new mid-to- top end swimwear range within the next year.