Lee Cooper jeans joint venture in China

European jeans label Lee Cooper, with head office in England has as formed a 50:50 joint venture with China Ting Group Holdings Limited to market Lee Cooper's denim apparel and accessories in China on an exclusive basis.

The joint venture, named Lee Cooper China Limited, with the regional office in Hong Kong, will engage in brand management, franchising, and wholesale and retail activities in China. It is hoped that the relationship will help Lee Cooper realize its ambition to open 120 stand-alone stores and shop-in-shops over the next 3 years.

China Ting is a vertically integrated fashion and garment manufacturer, exporter and retailer in China with a consolidated annual turnover of around US$250 million. Its retail business comprises approximately 350 shops in 27 provinces/cities in China.

Michael Capper, CEO Asia Pacific of Lee Cooper Group Limited said, China Ting Group has proven success in the fashionable garment manufacturing for export and retailing of fashion product lines in the China market plus an excellent track record of profitability and sales growth.

Meanwhile Lee Cooper has also acquired PT Lee Cooper Indonesia, its exclusive licensee and operator of 91 retail stores and shop-in-shops in Indonesia, from its previous owners PT Kushendy Asribusana (KAB).

Established in 1989, KAB is also a distributor of Red Earth cosmetics. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. However, PT Lee Cooper Indonesia is retaining the original management team led by Jody Dharmawan.

The Lee Cooper brand is ranked amongst the top three jeans brands in Indonesia and the move back up the denim makers recently-announced joint ventures in China and India.

Lee Cooper is jointly owned by a group of investment companies including Sun European Partners, LLP, the European advisor to Sun Capital Partners, Inc., The 180 Group LLC, and Emerisque Capital Limited.

(Original Article, 8 November 2006, Database Recovered)