Lever Style adds technical outerwear with latest acquisition | Apparel Industry News

Liwaco makes men’s and women’s technical outerwear for high performance outdoor brands such as Helly Hansen

Hong Kong listed fashion supply chain manager Lever Style Corporation is adding technical apparel capabilities with its second acquisition in the space of a month.

The company has bought the apparel business of Liwaco Overseas Marketing Limited (Liwaco) US$4.4m including the technical outerwear maker’s customer and supplier relationships, staff, and sales and production pipelines.

Liwaco makes men’s and women’s technical outerwear for high performance outdoor brands such as Mammut, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Helly Hansen, and Black Diamond.

This is Lever Style’s first foray into the technical apparel market. With both fashion and technical apparel expertise, the company is well-placed to support its customers in the growing athleisure segment – at the intersection of sportswear and fashion.

The acquisition comes after Lever Style in July acquired Hong Kong knitwear manufacturer Vista Apparels, a supplier of sweaters to premium brands such as Paul Smith and James Perse.

The moves demonstrate rapid progress against the company’s strategy outlined at the time of its US$20m IPO last November to further expand its apparel category portfolio through mergers and acquisitions. 

“We will enhance Liwaco’s operations for efficiency, speed and flexibility and integrate them into Lever Style,” says Stanley Szeto, executive chairman of Lever Style. “The ability to offer our expanded customer base technical outerwear in addition to our existing wide product range provides cross-selling opportunities as well as economies of scale.”

Earlier this year Szeto told just-style how Lever Style is in the process of positioning itself as the product engine for rising e-commerce brands and platforms such as Bonobos and Stitch Fix. The company also meets the demands of designer labels such as Paul Smith, and premium contemporary brands such as Hugo Boss, Theory, All Saints, Vince and Rag & Bone. 

“We offer an industry-leading range of product categories for both men and women, in a full offering of fabrics. Our supply chain solutions encompass fashion design, prototype development, raw material procurement, production oversight, quality control, and logistics.”

He said around two-thirds of the IPO proceeds have been earmarked for expansion into additional categories by acquiring apparel suppliers in Asia.