English fashion brand Lee Cooper enters Bangladesh

British fashion brand Lee Cooper yesterday teamed up with Bangladesh’s Express Leather Products to enter into the growing market of the South Asian nation.

“Bangladesh is a huge opportunity for us. We were looking for Bangladesh for a long time,” Wayne Bebb, global managing director at Lee Cooper, said after signing the agreement at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka.

“Lee Cooper is expanding its operations a lot all over the world and Bangladesh is a part of our expansion plan. Bangladesh is a good place for our business,” he told The Daily Star. 

“We are very excited with the opportunity. Bangladesh is becoming a significant partner of Lee Cooper.”

He said the existing shoe manufacturing plants of their local partner would also work for Lee Cooper.

“Lee Cooper started its journey in Bangladesh with leather footwear products from today. We will soon start selling denim jeans of the English clothing company also,” said Kazi Jamil Islam, managing director of Express Leather Products. 

“Lee Cooper came here mainly to grab the young consumers of Bangladesh,” he said.

He said denim has become a product for regular use in Bangladesh thanks to the changing fashion landscape of the country.

Now many people wear denim rather than formal trousers as causal fashion is growing in the country, he said.

Lee Cooper will sell its goods produced in Bangladesh along with the imported ones, said Islam. 

Many licensees of Lee Cooper around the world source its goods from Bangladesh, he said.

Islam also said they have not yet opened any Lee Cooper outlet in Bangladesh. “The work for opening outlets will start soon.” Seven sister companies owned by Express Leather Products will produce leather goods for Lee Cooper, which, instead of investing money through a joint venture, is allowing use of its brand, he said. 

“The target customers are from the young generation. Around 50 percent of Bangladesh’s population is aged below 25 years. So this is a very big market for us,” he said.  

Last year, Express Leather Products also started selling Lotto-branded products. In a year, the company sold Tk 180 crore worth of Lotto shoes, he said.  “Some 18 crore people live in this country and two feet that means 36 crore pieces of shoes. This is an enormous market for us.”

Islam thinks around Tk 6,000 crore worth of shoes are sold in the domestic market every year. However, industry insiders believe the amount to cross Tk 20,000 crore.  

Founded in London’s East End in 1908, Lee Cooper has a rich history establishing an iconic status as the original British denim brand. Its current worth is around $703 million with operations in over 100 countries.