The Export Development Board (EDB) is helping to organise into a cluster, apparel exporters who have invested in and developed their own brands as part of an initiative to support their overseas marketing efforts.
Chairperson of the Export Development Board, Indira Malwatte said the clustering approach will help strengthen the position of apparel manufacturers who have developed their own brands to penetrate overseas markets.
“The EDB has clustered all apparel brands,” she said at a recent press conference.
“We feel that’s how we can get to the next level and have our own brands in export markets.”
About eight local apparel firms with their own brands are in the cluster.
“The EDB is pushing these brands, helping them with an awareness program under Sri Lankan brands such as amanté and Aviraté,” Malwatte said.
amanté is a brand owned by MAS Brands Pvt Limited, a subsidiary of MAS Holdings, one of the island’s largest apparel exporters.
Aviraté is an international fashion brand owned by another big Sri Lankan apparel manufacturer, the Timex and Fergasam Group.
Malwatte said the EDB assistance scheme to branded apparel exporters will help bear part of the costs of overseas marketing such as branding and legal fees.
It would be similar to EDB support to cinnamon exporters where the export promotion agency registered the Ceylon Cinnamon brand in overseas markets under which selected exporters can ship their products.
For individual exporters to register their own brands in different overseas markets would be very expensive and time consuming, she said.