Global vibe

Snowdon departure
UNITED KINGDOM: The managing director of Ugg Australia's UK distributor, Dave Snowdon, has handed in his notice and set up a consultancy business. Snowdon, worked at AMG Footwear for two years and was appointed managing director last year but started work as a consultant on February 1. AMG, which also distributes Simple and Teva in the UK, will be one of Snowdon's first clients. He will help the distribution company develop its strategy for 2009. Snowdon will not be replaced at AMG with the existing management team taking over the day-to-day running of the business and the Ugg account.

H&M bucks trend
SWEDEN: Swedish clothing store giant H&M has unveiled plans to create between 6000 and 70000 new jobs in 2009. The announcement follows news the fourth-quarter profits at H&M were ahead of analysts' expectations with a 14 per cent rise in pre-tax profits. Annual profits were up 11% at SEK 21.19bn at the world's third-largest clothing retailer. Known for its fast fashion approach to retail, the company said growth and development opportunities were positive and it expected to create between 6,000 and 7,000 jobs in the current year.

Gap filled
UNITED STATES: International retail group Gap has announced former employee Mark Breitbard will return to the company as chief merchandising and creative officer leading design and merchandising functions for Old Navy. Breitbard, 40, will guide product strategy for the brand from design conception to product assortment through to its final presentation in stores. Breitbard joins Old Navy from Levi Strauss & Co, where he was President of the retail division since 2007. Previously he was senior vice president and general manager at Abercrombie and Fitch, where he had responsibility for all aspects of launching its Ruehl brand, from design concept through store presentation.

Tesco's apparel moves
UNITED KINGDOM: Supermarket chain Tesco has announced plans to launch a new own-brand clothing website. The supermarket chain said that the site will sell thousands of items from its own-branded lines including Florence & Fred, Cherokee, Elspeth Gibson and Connie Fisher's My Favourite Things. Set to launch in time for northern hesmisphere's autumn/winter collections, it is understood Tesco will be working with existing suppliers, many of whom have been partners with the supermarket for at least five years. Clothing sales online were worth £1.3 billion ($A2.9 billion) in 2007, accounting for four per cent of total clothing sales in the UK, but this is predicted to more than treble by 2012 to £6 billion ($A13.6 billion), accounting for 13 per cent of the market.