Totowa, NJ, Jan. 8, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premiere Opportunities Group, Inc (PPBL:OTCQX) is pleased to announce that it will be distributing the Kiton line of clothing in Korea, Mainland China and Southeast Asia.
Kiton ( http://www.kiton.it/index1.hhtml) is a luxury, bespoke clothing company co-founded in 1956 as CIPA in Naples, Italy by Ciro Paone, a fifth-generation fabric merchant, and Antonio Carola. Launched in 1968, the brand gets its name from the Greek word chiton (costume), a sewn garment worn by the Greeks that the Romans later called a tunic.
In 2013, the company produced about 20,000 suits. Kiton employs about 330 master tailors claimed to be the best in the world and most suits take approximately 25 hours of labor, with at least 45 tailors contributing to each one.
There are two lines of ready-to-wear suits: the "classic line", which retails for approximately $ 7,000 to $8,000, and the "CIPA 1960" line, introduced in 2010, starting at $5,500. The CIPA line is a capsule line of suits made from vintage '60s-era fabrics, which are cut with slim and contemporary silhouettes.
Known as the world's most expensive suits, made to measure (bespoke) suits reach above US $20,000 and up to $50,000 for the "K-50" line, so called because of the number of production hours per piece and the number of units produced per year. Kiton suits are worn by many celebrities and was seen on the "Big Screen" on George Clooney in the 2007 movie "Oceans Thirteen".
Kiton also sells dress shirts that are also hand finished and sell for about $1,000. Kiton's sevenfold silk neckties and pocket squares are made from the finest materials in the world and sell for $500-1000.
Chris Giordano, Premiere's Chairman stated "We are extremely excited about distributing this line of clothing into the Asian markets. SE Asia and Mainland China are both extremely fashion conscious and extraordinarily affluent and willing to spend extraordinary premiums over MSRP when they want something.
We continue to move along the path that we started out with in 2013 which is to develop a highly profitable company by substantially limiting downside risks but maintaining substantial profit margins in the process. Our "Show You Tell Me" strategy is working very well. We show lines to our constituents in Seoul Korea. If they love the line we negotiate a joint venture or distribution agreement and then move forward. If they like the line we dont bother. It eliminates alot of the risks normally associated with creating inventory and "hoping" to sell it.
We now have distribution agreements for two of the worlds greatest clothing brands that do not have any presence in the SE Asia and China markets. Those brands are inclusive of Jones NY, Kiton and also are establishing our own joint venture brand Cabe Studio which is receiving excellent acceptance in the two Hyundai Department Stores in Seoul, Korea where the Cabe Studio line is available. Sales have been strong since the stores opened a week ago and with Chinese NY starting at the end of January we expect sales to increase from their already strong start.
Also noteworthy is the strong inference from Hyundai management for us to open up 16 stores in their other malls in both Korea and most importantly Mainland China.
Korea is the epicenter for fashion in Asia. If a designer is successful there its entree into the market in Mainland China can be considerable since the fashion conscious Chinese shopper looks to Korea as a leader in the world of fashion and will adopt such trends since they are highly fashionable and evoke prestige and success.
This opportunity that is being presented to us is substantial and we will move carefully not to overextend our store count beyond our ability to finance it. According to Hyundai each store could and should generate $500,000-$2,000,000 per year depending on the demand for each individual brand.
With that said our goal for 2014 is to have 6-10 brands that we distribute into both SE Asia and Mainland China. As the store count grows for each brand our revenues and potential profits will increase exponentially.
We are also in late stage discussions with several other world renown designers to distribute their clothing into Asia and are hopeful to have other agreements signed shortly."
Now that these dynamics are in place these brands they are starting to create their own inertia due to the demand for the brands in the Asian markets and henceforth we are looking forward to a watershed year for our shareholders.