Fosun sets up Fashion Brand Management Company to help labels into China

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 22, 2019

Fosun is firing on all cylinders as the company builds up its global fashion business. Its latest announcement on Thursday was that it has set up Fosun Fashion Brand Management Company (FFBM), "a pureplay operation [that] serves brands with ambitions to expand in the Greater China market.”

FFBM provides brands with full management services including retail and wholesale operations, merchandising, marketing and communication management, human capital and complete back office support, we’re told. 

The company also said it has put together an experienced team, with on average “over 15 years of operational experience in China” that “has successfully grown a number of fashion brands [there] over the past two decades.”

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Fosun Fashion Group chair Joann Cheng is describing the development as “a major milestone for us”  and said that FFBM “provides [us] with a wider scope of competencies, and allows us to maximise control over brands' performance in our own backyard enabling us to create incremental value for brands outside of their home markets.”

And with a massive number of international brands looking to exploit the huge potential in the Chinese market, there’s clearly a large likely user base for the platform out there.

FFBM CEO James Chen added: “In recent years, China has become one of the core markets for many brands, and it will continue to thrive to become one of world's top consumer markets.”

Chen himself has a strong track record. He was the founder of UCCAL Fashion Group (which was acquired by Li & Fung in 2014) and acted as its CEO. While there, Chen “managed and developed over 700 monobrand stores across China” for labels such as Roberto Cavalli, A. Testoni, Isaia, St. John, M Missoni and Porsche Design.

Fosun International, which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has diversified assets of around CNY560 billion (US$85 billion). Its Fosun Fashion Group unit was created to manage the firm’s portfolio of fashion assets including St John Knits, Caruso, and Tom Tailor, as well as investing in additional global brands to leverage the momentum in the Chinese consumer market. Recent acquisitions have included big names Lanvin and Wolford and the firm is also aiming to take full ownership of Tom Tailor.