Easy Jeans seeks agency for UK assault

Easy Jeans, the London-based clothing company which aims to build its presence in the UK jeans market, is talking to five agencies about a new advertising campaign for 1997.

Simon Edwards, marketing manager for Easy Jeans, confirms he will give the agencies the brief this Friday, although he would not reveal their names and is unable to say what the budget will be – 1m is thought a likely sum.

Edwards says: “We’re contesting the fourth place in the UK market, but we plan to double last year’s marketing spend. Up to now, advertising has been done in-house.”

Easy Jeans was founded in Hong Kong in 1972 before shifting its headquarters to the UK. The company began by making jeans for Levi-Strauss, only later creating its own brand. It now makes jeans, tops and knitwear for both men and women, and has worldwide sales of about 37m or 3.1 per cent of the market.

Edwards says the brand is particularly strong in Eastern Europe and South America. It recently opened an Easy Jeans branded retail outlet in Newcastle.

The latest figures from Mintel suggest that Levi’s has more than 22 per cent of the 1.26bn UK jeans market, with Wrangler, Pepe, Lee, Easy and Lee Cooper accounting for between two per cent and seven per cent each. Easy is the fifth biggest jeans manufacturer in the UK.