Barcelona-based fashion start-up Medwinds is launching in the UK this March on www.medwinds.co.uk, and expects to generate between £1m and £1.5m sales during 2011, and £4m during 2012. The strategy for Medwinds is to sell high quality, casual women’s and menswear to the 25-45 age group, but keep prices down as goods are delivered to customers direct from the company’s Spanish warehouse. Free delivery in the UK will be offered, with orders arriving in 48 hours.
The company will begin selling clothes from its www.medwinds.com site in Spain from February 14, but is focusing 75% of its marketing budget spend on the UK, where at least £1m will be invested in online and offline advertising to launch the new brand, and gain a foothold in the British fashion market.
Javier Batanero, Medwinds’ business director, says: “This is a very ambitious, unique project and we are really planning for the long-term. We see huge potential in the UK as online fashion sales online here dominate the European market. We believe the UK is the leader in ecommerce, so we want to get things right here first.”
The company expects to make a profit “in year two or three”. Websites for Italy and France will launch in September this year, and a site for Germany is planned for next year.
“Our style will be very understated and classic, perhaps a mix of the kinds of brands European customers know,” says Lorenzo Fluxa, chief executive of Medwinds. “There’s a bit of Gap, Mango, American Apparel, Uniqlo. Customers will come to us for classic jeans, a nice polo shirt for summer and a stylish white shirt.” Price points will be around £50 for jeans and dresses, and £70 for shoes. Accessories including belts and handbags will also make up the Medwinds launch range, which will feature around 110 product lines.
The company is using the Optaros ecommerce platform which is an on-demand platform that can run in multiple currencies and multiple languages. The name Medwinds was chosen to evoke the Mediterranean breezes for which Barcelona is well-known, says Fluxa.
