Owen makes great strides in the local fashion industry

Pham Thi Tuyet, deputy general director of Kowil Fashion JSC

Owen has witnessed a 10-year development journey full of ups and downs. Whatyou’re your most fond memories from this period?

At the beginning, we lacked experience. However, we landed the first order of VND30 billion ($1.3 million). We felt quite happy then, but were also quite anxious about fulfilling the contract successfully.

We also found it difficult at first to sell products in the market, as most outlets refused to buy our products because they had never heard of us.

We decided to change our strategy by changing the products’ designs to regular and slim fit to better match the demands of customers. This decisive change has led to what you can see today: Owen has been growing at an astounding rate ever since.

Owen is about to change its strategy to turn more towards young customers. What will the company do to catch up with current trends?

Owen has a vision to become the leading menswear brand in Vietnam, providing premium menswear that meet international standards as well as first-rate customer care to bring shoppers the best experiences.

We have been professionalising our capacities by maximising our internal and external strengths.

Specifically, we will leverage the advantages of the parent company Phu Thai Group to strengthen our corporate and financial capacities, human resources, and partner development initiatives.

We will also increase co-operation with professional partners, with a focus on the strategic partnership with Itochu, Japan’s largest trade group, in order to ensure that both our material sources and products are of the highest quality.

In addition, we will also keep our finger on the pulse of the local fashion industry, keeping up with fashion trends to be able to give customers products they truly desire – before the rest of the market.

Another issue of no less importance is that Owen will digitalise several production chains in order to create the best products in the shortest period of time. E-commerce development will remain one of our prime targets in the time to come.

We will also continue to attract talented people from Vietnam and abroad to further improve our management and operational capacities and enhance innovations to create superior values.

Owen will charge forward by building on solidarity and unity. Each Owen member incarnates the knowledge, skills, and attitude of the Owen home.

What is more, we will continue perfecting our business model within Kowil, and our model for Kowil to work with its partners in the market in the most effective manner.

Why has Owen decided to change its strategy? Are you not concerned that the new strategy is quite ambitious?

A new playing field is opening for Owen and Vietnamese fashion firms, where there are many new foreign fashion names. This has created big pressures for all firms, forcing them to adapt to meet new demands or fall behind.

If Vietnamese firms want to succeed in the market, they must change the way they think about leading their companies, improve their capacity, and understand market demand.

This year Owen turns 10 years old. A decade is not long in the fashion industry, but it has been long enough for Owen to develop and become one of the leaders in Vietnam. Despite the ups and downs, Owen remains steadfast in its development strategy.

I would like to repeat that Owen’s vision is to become the leading menswear brand in Vietnam, providing the best value and premium menswear for Vietnamese men. I hope that one day Owen will be an icon of Vietnamese fashion.

Does Owen plan to go international?

We hope that Owen will become well-known in the region, and we do believe that this dream will become true, given our big advantages in distribution and our large network of partners, especially Itochu Group. We are planning to market our products in Southeast Asian markets, and even in Japan via Itochu.