Korea’s DFD Fashion Group to start Chinese ops

South Korea’s DFD Fashion Group said has announced that it will open a joint multi-brand store in Shanghai in September with Metersbonwe Group, a leading casual wear apparel company in China, Korean news website Pulse has reported.

Following the deal, DFD Fashion Group, well known for a number of shoe and apparel brands including Soda and Bogner, said it would become the first Korea company to provide not only its products to a Chinese company but also its management know how.

DFD Fashion Group also said that under the deal, it plans to open 500 large-scale stores in major shopping malls in China by 2021 with a sales target of 500 billion won ($426 million) in the first five years.

The Metersbonwe Group had proposed a mid- to long-term partnership deal that involves DFD Fashion Group providing products, trademark rights, and management know-how for five years while Metersbonwe Group providing store operation and distribution network in China as well as customer analysis, the Korean company said.

DFD Fashion Group said it has already received 5 billion won ($426 million) worth of royalty from Metersbonwe Group for the partnership and is expected to receive more than 10 billion won worth of additional royalty every year. An unnamed official from DFD Fashion Group said that the partnership with Metersbonwe Group paved the way for Korean companies to enter the Chinese market with a new business model. In the past, Korean fashion companies generally entered China simply by supplying products, but the latest deal allowed a Korean company to get paid royalties for consulting and management know-how services for the first time.

DFD Fashion Group manages shoe brands Soda, Daks, Manas, and The Flexx, a multi shoe store called Shoespa, golf fashion brands Bogner and Cutter & Buck, as well as a multi-cultural space called 9Block. It is also engaged in golf resort business. Metersbonwe Group, which was established in 1995 in Wenzhou, China, currently operates 4,500 stores of brands including Metersbonwe, Me&City, and Moomoo. Last year, it raised 1.8 trillion won in sales. If the partnership with Metersbonwe Group goes well, DFD Fashion Group plans to set up its branch in China, the report said.