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Bram's Paris, a Dutch wholesale company that designs, markets and distributes jeans and casual clothing opened its first Asian buying office in Hong Kong today (August 12). The office will operate under the name of PMH International Limited.

Founded in 1975 in The Netherlands, Bram's Paris sells a wide variety of casual-wear for ladies and men, as well as for children. The company has its own team of in-house designers, and state-of-the-art sourcing and distribution facilities. Europe is the key market for its products, with a strong presence in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Bram's Paris is well known in the market of its never-out-of-stock and bought 2.7 million pieces of Jeans items from Hong Kong last year.

Mr Peter Heerlien, Managing Director of Bram's Paris, who flies with his family from The Netherlands to officiate the office-opening ceremony said : "Hong Kong is our first choice for setting up sourcing facilities in Asia due to its superb location: being a gateway to China and proximity to all our sourcing targets in the region. With its excellent infrastructure for logistics, banking and shipping, simple tax structure and strong local expertise in the garment sector, I have confident that we shall succeed in the very near future. I am also very pleased with our team staff in PMH International Ltd".

Mr Peter Heerlien continued: "Our goal is to develop successful long-term relationships with our suppliers and business partners. As a major sourcing hub for textiles and garments trading, Hong Kong allows us to get started with our operations in the most efficient way."

Mr Jochum Haakma, the Consul-General of The Netherlands, officiated at the ceremony today.

"The Netherlands is the second largest investor in Hong Kong," Mr Haakma said.

"With more than 260 Dutch companies based in Hong Kong, PMH International Ltd is the next company that joined the already well represented core of Dutch corporations," Mr Haakma added.

PMH International Limited is headed by Ms. Irene Fu in Hong Kong, who has more than 20 years in garment sector, with extensive buying relationship in Asia region, such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea and all parts of China.

Also officiated at the ceremony was the acting Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion at Invest Hong Kong, Mr Charles Ng. He said: "Hong Kong is the world's second largest exporter of garment products and has the largest concentration of fabric and yarn suppliers from all around the world, making it the capital for sourcing raw materials.

"Hong Kong also has a pool of talented professionals who can take care of all kinds of services along the supply chain to ensure timely and smooth delivery.

"It has an unsurpassed reputation of delivery quality products and has a track record to prove its efficiency and innovation in production. All these are very important factors especially for companies like Bram's Paris which valued its never-out-of-stock policy so much to their customers.

"We are delighted that Bram's Paris decided to set up its sourcing office here in Hong Kong and we wish the new team every success for its first foothold in Asia."

Invest Hong Kong is a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government department charged with encouraging and facilitating foreign investment into the city by providing all the support needed to establish a business presence here.

End/Monday, August 12, 2002

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