Wacoal Group officially establishes European subsidiary

By

Anaïs Lerévérend

Published
Jul 6, 2014

Since it was founded in 1946, Wacoal has intended to become a major player on the international market. The Japanese company is now taking another step on that path. Wacoal, which has 22 offices worldwide, has just announced the creation of “genuine” European subsidiary, as operations on the continent until now have primarily been carried out through its Asian and American bases.

It’s a logical step, as it follows the acquisition of the British company Eveden two years ago - its first foray into Europe, which will now help in shaping the new European subsidiary.

A Wacoal spokesperson has stated that the acquisition of Eveden (Freya, Fantasy, Elomi, Huit ...) corresponded to "the desire to find a well-established European partner that would enable them to develop in Europe".

While its expansion into the U.S. began in the early 90s and has gone rather well, Europe has been more of a challenge for the Japanese brand. The idea now is to kick things into a higher gear on the European market.

In that context, Wacoal Europe is planning to come out with its own collection for spring-summer ’15. The design department from what was formerly Eveden will rely on fundamentals established by Wacoal, but intends to respond better to the specific desires of European customers. The pieces designed for Europe will nevertheless become available on the American and Asian markets in order to supplement their range, as the group would like to be as internationally oriented as possible.

Wacoal’s European subsidiary will be officially renamed Wacoal Europe instead of Eveden beginning on January 2015 and will be led by Tracy Lewis, Eveden’s current head, who is based in London.