[caption id="attachment_89835" align="alignleft" width="260"]
Hameedia Managing Director Fouzul Hameed[/caption]
By Uwin Lugoda
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer behaviour, with customers choosing to sacrifice life's luxuries and settling for the most essential products. This change is heavily felt by high-end fashion brands, with people caring less about the way they look due to the lack of events and social gatherings.
Hameedia, a leading home-grown menswear brand, has not been immune to this impact, according to its Managing Director (MD) Fouzul Hameed. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Hameed stated that while they have felt a huge impact on business, they are thankful to the Sri Lankan Government for taking control of the situation and restarting business activities. He explained that they understand that the entire world is currently going through a similar situation, which has made a lot of consumers cut down on things that they do not need, including luxury items.
A few months ago, the brand celebrated its 70th anniversary with the opening of its newest flagship store at One Galle Face Mall on 8 November 2019. This became the brand's 16th showroom alongside its two Envoy showrooms and a distribution network at retail outlets across Sri Lanka.
Retail network
All 18 Hameedia outlets islandwide are currently open, with several of its mall showrooms, such as the ones at Majestic City, Crescat , One Galle Face Mall, and Envoy CCC (Colombo City Centre) and Ja-Ela having opened as early as 11 May. According to Hameed, the outlets have taken all the necessary precautions by adhering to all government health and safety standards in order to provide consumers a safer shopping experience.
These necessary precautions include requiring that customers wear face masks and use sanitiser at the entrance of each outlet, and sanitising their showrooms as per standard protocols set by the Government. Each outlet has notices and signs explaining the protocols customers must adhere to, including keeping a distance of one metre and handing over clothes after a fit on to sales staff, as they have to subject it to a sanitisation procedure. Sales staff will also be handling the clothes while wearing gloves, reducing the need for customers to interact with the clothing.
Hameed explained that while all the outlets are open, none have reached their full potential in terms of foot traffic, and are currently not making much, with sales still being under 50%. He stated that this is because the brand targets more high-end customers, who shop for functions like weddings and other official events; these events have stopped, and the foot traffic to their outlets as well.
"Especially with the wedding industry being impacted, most of our wedding orders, such as suits for the groom's party, have been postponed. We have also seen a drop in sales in general wedding attire, due to less people going to weddings in order to abide by the 100 per wedding rule set by the Government."
Promotions and offers
Speaking on their product sales, he stated that while there has been an overall drop, certain products, such as in the smart casual category, are recovering better than formal or casual wear. However, seeing the need for office wear, as people needed to dress for success, Hameed stated that they are now launching a campaign called “Back to work with power dresses”, in the coming week.
Hameedia has partnered with all the banks in order to give a 25% discount on office wear for this campaign. He explained that after seeing people dressing down to go to offices, opting to wear old t-shirts and shirts, the brand decided to promote men's office wear to help them dress in line with their motivations.
Other promotional campaigns the brand had implemented include 20% off on all products for Eid Mubarak, 40% off on their Adidas products, and 15% on Father's Day gifts. The store also introduced a new product to its portfolio, in the form of fashionable, reusable face masks, which are water repellent and have an outer layer of Japanese fabric.
Wish list
Hameed stated that they feel the business environment is getting better, and that they are trying to reach their end of year sales goal. He stated that they would recover much faster if more activities and functions returned to normal, because that is when people want to buy clothes.
“If there are more entertainment activities and if people start eating out again, our sales will recover; when people are home, they do not like to dress up."
He went on to state that during this time, the brand's online presence has improved after a long time. They have moved to upgrade their website during the last few months, and plan to upgrade it even further to have a better online presence. Hameed stated that currently, around 10-15% of Hameedia’s sales are now attributed to their website, which is higher than the earlier 5%.
According to Hameed, Hameedia also currently has two manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka which reopened in May, with another one currently on the way. Employees in these plants also adhere to safety standards, with temperature checks when entering, using sanitiser at the entrance, keeping a one-metre distance, and doing frequent temperature checks while working.
Post-Covid, he stated that the Government should look to balance the number of imports entering the country, while supporting and motivating local manufacturers. He also suggested that the Government start implementing quality control standards for imports, so that low-quality products do not come into the country.
"Moving forward, we should focus on our local manufacturers. We have talented people here, and we need to bring down the talent that has left the country, pay them a good salary, and set up more manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka."
Hameedia Managing Director Fouzul Hameed[/caption]
By Uwin Lugoda
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumer behaviour, with customers choosing to sacrifice life's luxuries and settling for the most essential products. This change is heavily felt by high-end fashion brands, with people caring less about the way they look due to the lack of events and social gatherings.
Hameedia, a leading home-grown menswear brand, has not been immune to this impact, according to its Managing Director (MD) Fouzul Hameed. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Hameed stated that while they have felt a huge impact on business, they are thankful to the Sri Lankan Government for taking control of the situation and restarting business activities. He explained that they understand that the entire world is currently going through a similar situation, which has made a lot of consumers cut down on things that they do not need, including luxury items.
A few months ago, the brand celebrated its 70th anniversary with the opening of its newest flagship store at One Galle Face Mall on 8 November 2019. This became the brand's 16th showroom alongside its two Envoy showrooms and a distribution network at retail outlets across Sri Lanka.
Retail network
All 18 Hameedia outlets islandwide are currently open, with several of its mall showrooms, such as the ones at Majestic City, Crescat , One Galle Face Mall, and Envoy CCC (Colombo City Centre) and Ja-Ela having opened as early as 11 May. According to Hameed, the outlets have taken all the necessary precautions by adhering to all government health and safety standards in order to provide consumers a safer shopping experience.
These necessary precautions include requiring that customers wear face masks and use sanitiser at the entrance of each outlet, and sanitising their showrooms as per standard protocols set by the Government. Each outlet has notices and signs explaining the protocols customers must adhere to, including keeping a distance of one metre and handing over clothes after a fit on to sales staff, as they have to subject it to a sanitisation procedure. Sales staff will also be handling the clothes while wearing gloves, reducing the need for customers to interact with the clothing.
Hameed explained that while all the outlets are open, none have reached their full potential in terms of foot traffic, and are currently not making much, with sales still being under 50%. He stated that this is because the brand targets more high-end customers, who shop for functions like weddings and other official events; these events have stopped, and the foot traffic to their outlets as well.
"Especially with the wedding industry being impacted, most of our wedding orders, such as suits for the groom's party, have been postponed. We have also seen a drop in sales in general wedding attire, due to less people going to weddings in order to abide by the 100 per wedding rule set by the Government."
Promotions and offers
Speaking on their product sales, he stated that while there has been an overall drop, certain products, such as in the smart casual category, are recovering better than formal or casual wear. However, seeing the need for office wear, as people needed to dress for success, Hameed stated that they are now launching a campaign called “Back to work with power dresses”, in the coming week.
Hameedia has partnered with all the banks in order to give a 25% discount on office wear for this campaign. He explained that after seeing people dressing down to go to offices, opting to wear old t-shirts and shirts, the brand decided to promote men's office wear to help them dress in line with their motivations.
Other promotional campaigns the brand had implemented include 20% off on all products for Eid Mubarak, 40% off on their Adidas products, and 15% on Father's Day gifts. The store also introduced a new product to its portfolio, in the form of fashionable, reusable face masks, which are water repellent and have an outer layer of Japanese fabric.
Wish list
Hameed stated that they feel the business environment is getting better, and that they are trying to reach their end of year sales goal. He stated that they would recover much faster if more activities and functions returned to normal, because that is when people want to buy clothes.
“If there are more entertainment activities and if people start eating out again, our sales will recover; when people are home, they do not like to dress up."
He went on to state that during this time, the brand's online presence has improved after a long time. They have moved to upgrade their website during the last few months, and plan to upgrade it even further to have a better online presence. Hameed stated that currently, around 10-15% of Hameedia’s sales are now attributed to their website, which is higher than the earlier 5%.
According to Hameed, Hameedia also currently has two manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka which reopened in May, with another one currently on the way. Employees in these plants also adhere to safety standards, with temperature checks when entering, using sanitiser at the entrance, keeping a one-metre distance, and doing frequent temperature checks while working.
Post-Covid, he stated that the Government should look to balance the number of imports entering the country, while supporting and motivating local manufacturers. He also suggested that the Government start implementing quality control standards for imports, so that low-quality products do not come into the country.
"Moving forward, we should focus on our local manufacturers. We have talented people here, and we need to bring down the talent that has left the country, pay them a good salary, and set up more manufacturing plants in Sri Lanka."