BRINGING THE FAR
EAST TO EUROPE
The L-Fashion Group, based in Lahti, Finland, is active in the fashion, sportswear and home textile sectors. It is currently in the process of introducing an exciting range of sporting apparel in collaboration with its Chinese partners – something it hopes will go down well amongst European consumers. Victoria Hattersley talks to managing director Vesa Luhtanen about the continuing success of its various sportswear brands in Europe and beyond.
T
he L-Fashion Group, known as Luhta until 1992, is divided into three separate divisions: fashion, sport and home textiles. Its fashion and home textiles products are mainly directed at the domestic and Russian markets, where it has a chain of 60 of its own Aleksi 13 retail outlets. However its sportswear division – the focus of this article – is well-established throughout Europe and the company has ambitions to take it even further in the coming years. It has
been building up its sporting brand visibility by collaborating with high-profile motor sport clients such as Citroën and Ford, by sponsoring the world’s best ski jumping teams and dressing members of several European ski clubs, for instance. Over the past decade the company has moved almost its entire production to the Asian market in order to position itself more competitively. In this it has succeeded, as Mr Luhtanen explains: “We are no longer produc-
ing in Europe because of the cost factor. We have always positioned ourselves in the lowhigh and medium-low segments where price is a very important consideration from both the consumer and the retailer perspective. After struggling a little in the late 1990s we have now found a good quality:price ratio.” It is this outsourcing of production which the company’s managing director believes gives L-Fashion Group its main competitive edge in a fairly crowded European sector.
