AUSTRALIA-
Akubra, the iconic Australian hat, could soon be seen on heads all across China, Minister for State Development, Ian Macdonald, has announced.
Akubra Hats Pty Ltd, based in Kempsey, recently sent a shipment of its famous hats to a distributor in China to greatly increase their sales in the enormous market. "This is a very exciting opportunity for this NSW company, and because China is the world’s most populated country, there is a huge potential here for this Aussie icon," Mr Macdonald said. Akubra Hats sought help from one of the nine NSW Government export advisers in establishing the deal. "Last year, NSW export advisers worked with nearly 700 companies, such as Akubra Hats, helping them achieve new export sales of about $55 million." Akubra’s company secretary, Roy Wilkinson, said the company’s December shipment of 300 hats to China is a trial using an established distributor in Hebei Province, near Beijing. "We had been selling about 3000 hats a year in China for the past few years in a piecemeal way, but that’s a small quantity in what is a potentially huge market," Mr Wilkinson said. "Three-hundred hats is just the tip of the iceberg - we’re optimistic about expanding our exports to China because of the size of the market and the country’s growing middle class who are becoming very brand concious.
