AWI targets Japanese retailers

SYDNEY: Australian Wool Innovation has announced a $1.4 million marketing assault on the Japanese retail market.

The industry research, marketing and development firm will roll out a multi-million dollar marketing program involving five major Japanese retailers during 2008 and through to March 2009.

The announcement comes after German-based fashion house Hugo Boss announced it would phase out the use of wool from farms where sheep were mulesed. Other influential international retailers who have vowed not to use Australian wool or wool from mulesed lambs include Abercrombie & Fitch, Timberland and H&M.

AWI CEO Craig Welsh said the Japanese program aimed to create some one million kilograms of new demand for Australian Merino wool over the next three years. He said there had not been a targeted wool marketing campaign in Japan for over a decade.

"Japan is the second largest wool apparel consuming country in the world after China, with an estimated retail market size of 80 million kilograms of wool."

The five retail partners include Isetan, the forth largest department store for apparel sales in Japan; Onward Kashiyama, the largest apparel manufacturer and wholesaler in Japan; Sanyo Shokai, a leading womenswear and menswear supplier with a wide range of local and international brand licenses; Aoyama Trading, Japan's largest menswear chain and Flandre, one of the market leaders in young womenswear apparel in Japan.

The program will offer retailers in-store displays, branded swingtags with description of the product and fibre story, poster designs and banners, advertising templates for each collection and for the program as a whole, a training kit for retail staff on Merino wool, in-store events and campaigns, sales staff training, online resources and direct mail advertising.