The Scoresby-headquartered TNF Group was recently purchased by the US-based HanesBrands for $US9 million ($A8.362 million). Former majority shareholder of TNF Group and now general manager of HanesBrands' local operations, Guy Tuthill, said business changes were already well under way. The first was a re-evaluation of wholesale margins and price points thanks in part to the access to HanesBrands' “very strong” supply chain, Tuthill reported. The first brands to see wholesale and retail price changes will be Champion and Track N Field. Approximately 30 per cent of the Track N Field range will drop in price by up to 20 per cent, while a hearty 45 per cent of Champion product will also drop by up to 20 per cent. The goal is to reposition Track N Field in the market so its price points fall under Champion's, Tuthill said. He added the company would also be working on adding value at the top end of the market, particularly to the Champion brand. “Sports stores today are a lot more about selling performance sports, double dry product, and that's where we're going to become more competitive.” Elsewhere, home-grown performancewear brand PerforMax is going to be rebranded as PerforMax by Champion and TNF Group's school sportswear business will be renamed Champion Teamwear. “We'll develop that over the next six months and I think that will give us that early adopter to Champion at that early age,” Tuthill said of the schoolwear. TNF Group's yoga-inspired label, LeLuu, will undergo changes down the track. In addition to Champion, the publicly listed HanesBrands business also owns lingerie labels Playtex, Wonderbra and Barely There, hosiery brands L'eggs and Hanes hosiery, and basics brand Hanes, to name but a few. Tuthill said with the exception of Hanes – which is managed locally by Epicentre Trading – all other HanesBrands labels will move in-house to what was TNF. “We've just moved into a new building, have a lot more area, so we're not looking to do everything in one minute but over the next 12 to 18 months,” Tuthill said. “We'll have seven or eight or nine or 10 brands with the one warehouse customer service group and a few different sales groups.” Of his reasons for selling his share in the TNF Group to a company the size of HanesBrands – the latter reported $4.3 billion in net sales in 2010 – Tuthill said it was about foresight. “The discussion was 'do we renew your the [Champion] licence or do we buy your business and build Hanes and Playtex in Australia along with developing your own brands with better supplier management?' ... Even though we're doing quite well, we're going to come under the pump at some time so this has been a really good story for small business to actually be bought by a multinational company like HanesBrands.” Erin O'Loughlin
