Giordano opened its new design centre yesterday. Situated in Dongguan in the Pearl River Delta, the design centre occupies 5,500 sq m and will house 200 design, product development and sourcing professionals once it is fully staffed by the end of the year. Located in close proximity to the company’s key suppliers, the new design centre will help Giordano not just to build up its design and product development capabilities, but also enable the company to cooperate even closer with its suppliers, thus further strengthening the company’s competitive advantage.
“The competitive landscape facing Giordano today is tougher than ever. Not only do we have to compete against other Hong Kong apparel brands, we also have to contend with foreign brands that have made expansion into China their top strategic priority. In addition, the last few years have seen a number of local Chinese brands determinedly improving their product and service offerings in a bid to move upmarket. In order to meet this challenge, we must upgrade our product offering and the new design centre will be instrumental in our efforts,” remarked Dr. Lau Kwok Kuen, Peter, Chairman and Chief Executive of Giordano.
“Our existing design studio which we opened two years ago is 500 sq m in size and has a staff of about 70. In comparison, the new design centre occupies 5,500 sq m of space and will eventually house 200 product design, development and sourcing professionals, and represents an important investment in Giordano’s future,” continued Dr. Lau.
“People have asked me why we decided to locate the design centre in Dongguan instead of Shanghai or Beijing. We chose Dongguan partly because it is located mid-way between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, thus allowing the design centre staff to collaborate closely with both the international marketing team in Hong Kong and the China marketing team in Guangzhou. In addition, many of our key suppliers are located close by in the Pearl River Delta, so our product design and development teams will be able to work closely with them. This will help to further shorten our time-to-market and extend our edge over the competition,” Dr. Lau concluded.