Hope plans expansion of street stores

Lingerie brand Hope announced a plan to expand street stores in Brazil. The company, which is part of Texbrasil (Program for the Internationalization of the Brazilian Textile and Fashion Industry) — the result of a partnership between Abit (Brazilian Textile and Apparel Industry Association) and Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Export Promotion Agency and Investments) — will focus on cities with up to 200 thousand inhabitants.

“We realized that consumers started to value the proximity trade for shopping, especially with the home office or hybrid workdays”, explains Elton Deretti, commercial director of Hope, about the decision.

According to Elton, this was reflected in last year’s sales, with street stores increasing sales in 2020, compared to the previous year, which did not happen in mall stores, for example.

“For this reason, we adopted the idea of ​​boosting the opening of high street stores, which have lower initial investment and lower operating costs than shopping mall units”, he adds. The brand’s goal is to open 200 new high street stores in the next four years.

To support the expansion plans, Hope invested R$ 8 million in the expansion of its unit in Maranguape, Ceará, increasing its area to 33 thousand m².

International market

On the international scene, however, the focus is still on large cities, but the executive does not rule out applying the strategy of small municipalities abroad.

“Our first focus on international expansion is the big cities and commercial centers. But, once this first step is complete, we understand that it will be a natural process to expand our capillarity in these countries as well”, says Elton.

Today, Hope is present in 15 countries, with sales divided between franchises and distributors.

About Texbrasil

The Brazilian Textile and Fashion Industry Internationalization Program (Texbrasil) works with companies in the textile and clothing sector developing strategies to conquer the global market. Over 20 years, it has helped around 1600 brands to enter the export trail, generating USD 9 billion in business. The Program is carried out through a partnership between Abit and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil).