Humen garment district hopes to grow by thinking small

Chen Zhuo, founder and now general manager of the company, said that in the next three years, it will focus on putting distribution channels in every province in China.

Leutus, a local company that specializes in lingerie design and production, recently moved into a 3,000 square-meter R&D center.

Zheng Liyuan, general manager with Leutus, said the company will focus more on brand-building and new products research.

Established in 2006, the company targets the middle class, with affordable garments having an average price of about 250 yuan.

As one of the fastest-growing companies in Humen, Leutus has tallied an annual growth rate of 30 percent in the past three years.

Currently, it has more than 1,000 stores in China, which rang up 300 million yuan in sales in 2012.

E-commerce potential

As more companies are involved in e-commerce, the Humen government also is sparing no efforts in the rising industry.

To better compete with companies from Zhejiang province, the Humen E-commerce Association was launched in January.

Soon after, the association signed an agreement with QQ, Tencent's popular online messenger service.

According to the agreement, Humen can sell its garments via QQ's platform.

Data from the local government showed that more than 5,000 companies have become involved in e-commerce since 2003.

Annual online sales for Humen in 2012 came to about 15 billion yuan.