Pentland Brands launches Berghaus and ellesse brands in China

Pentland Brands has launched two of its best-loved brands in China – Berghaus and ellesse.  

The brands, which are now available in China on Tmall, are part of our strategy to grow the China business by driving commercial growth for Pentland in the region.   

Berghaus is focusing on the younger, urban consumer with the launch of its original Dean Street collection; a range of products inspired by its archive, with classic designs from the 1970s.  

With the Outdoor category in China growing by 9% year–on–year, the aim is to inspire consumers to gain confidence and new life experiences in the outdoors. Berghaus is now planning a full market launch for Spring 2022.  

ellesse, whose tailored sportswear gives it a unique position in the sports and fashion markets, was recently launched in China with an extensive content marketing campaign containing locally created assets for over 300 products. The brand takes inspiration from catwalks across the world, with tailoring techniques that infuse personality and elevate fashion style. 

The new Speedo x ellesse collaboration formed part of the campaign, which was revealed on the runway at Shanghai Fashion Week. The event was attended by media and fashion influencers, and broadcasted to over two million people live from the Tmall website.  

“The Speedo x ellesse collaboration was developed in just eight weeks, from design to market, and we locally produced all of the campaign assets” says Jessica Linsen, Pentland Brands China Commercial Director, whose team is responsible for managing the brands’ marketing and ecommerce activities. “We still think of ourselves as niche in this huge market but the demand from our wholesale and franchisee partners for the collaboration is exciting.”  

Both Speedo and ellesse brands will participate in this year’s Singles’ Day – the world’s biggest global online shopping event, which takes place on 11th November. With China’s economy rapidly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, this year retail giant Alibaba expects 800 million shoppers to participate – a promising opportunity to start creating ellesse’s longer-term presence.  

Jessica says, “Our hope for Singles’ Day is to capitalise on the post–COVID recovery and go into a fast–paced test and learn for ellesse, so we can set ourselves up in the new season with a full media backed campaign and refreshed product range for 2021.”