Finding out whether the new concepts are viable will take time, analysts say. "But over the next five years they could be the new avenue for growth and deliver quite successfully for the company," said Neil Saunders at retail consultant Conlumino. Most global fashion retailers, such as world no.3 player Gap with its banana republic and Old Navy brands Louis Vuitton outlet , and Asia's top apparel retailer Fast Retailing; have seen the wisdom of diversification. "One thing in clothing is very certain. That is that nobody spends all of their money at one store. People do a lot of shopping around - it's a very promiscuous sector," said Conlumino's Saunders.
Benetton and M&S are now suffering in the face of their nimbler rivals after they ran out of ideas on clothing. Benetton was delisted last month after the brand fell out of fashion from its 1980s heyday. The founding family is now trying to revive the brand and reposition the company. "They were content, historically, with operating a single brand and it hasn't done them any harm. But the last five years they definitely seem to have become more adventurous, more curious about what a truly multi-brand business might look like," said Bryan Roberts at global consultancy group Kantar Retail.
STOCKHOLM - H&M, the world's second largest fashion retailer, said on Thursday it will begin collecting used clothing in all of its markets next year in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of its products. "We want to do good for the environment, which is why we are now offering our customers... to leave their worn out or defective garments with H&M," chief executive Karl-Johan Persson said in a statement. Together with Spain's Zara, the Swedish brand was one of the first to copy the latest catwalk trends and then sell them for a fraction of the price Louis Vuitton handbags .
However, the company has come under fire for fuelling an unsustainable, throwaway fashion culture and has sought to improve its image this year by marketing itself as a major buyer of organic cotton. The new recycling initiative will be rolled out across the chain's 48 markets in February next year, in 1,500 of its 2,700 stores, including all outlets in the UK, US and Japan. Customers will be given a voucher for each bag of used clothing handed in .A spokeswoman for the company, Anna Eriksson, said a pilot project in Switzerland last year had been successful, and that it had "increased customers' awareness of our work on sustainability."
The costs incurred by the company from transporting the used garments to recycling plants will be limited, since it already has spare capacity on the delivery routes between stores and warehouses. "Long-term, H&M wants to reduce the environmental impact of garments throughout the life-cycle and create a closed loop for textile fibers," the company said. H&M's push for diversity has been driven by Karl-Johan, head of new business before becoming CEO in 2009. His father, Stefan, turned the company founded by his father, Erring, from a Swedish to a global name from the early 80's lv outlet
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