With basic staple items such as Peruvian Pima T-shirts for HKD $94 and Huzhou Chinese Silk Shirts for HKD $350, GRANA garments are now available on their website to be delivered at your door the very next day. Later on they will be releasing a full range of fabrics including Japanese Denim Jeans, French Poplin Shirts, Mongolian Cashmere Sweaters, Irish Linen Shirts and USA Twill Chinos.
We caught up with Founder Luke Grana who gave us the latest on…
… himself
I am a 30 year old Australian entrepreneur who moved over to Hong Kong to set up GRANA. In 2013 I decided to move to Hong Kong to set up our global warehouse and form a strong shipping partnership with DHL Express to deliver our boxes direct to our global customers. We had early success with our beta launch, we sold out of our 2,000 Peruvian PIMA cotton t-shirts in the first few weeks which helped us close our $1m USD capital raising round with Australian and Hong Kong investors. Now we have moved into a 3,000 square feet warehouse in Wong Chuk Hang and we have hired a talented team who can grow and scale the GRANA brand globally.
… moving to Hong Kong
I was annoyed with the prices Australia Post were quoting for shipping a 1kg box within Australia. I always knew Hong Kong was a global manufacturing and mega-hub for logistics so I reached out to DHL in Hong Kong to form a partnership. DHL offered us next day delivery to Australia and the US at prices lower than local courier companies. Everyday DHL have 5 planes going from Hong Kong to Australia and 11 planes going to the US so they can offer us discounted rates due to their sheer volume.
… the idea
The idea actually all started in Peru where I was visiting my brother and I came across the superior quality of Peruvian Pima Cotton. I was impressed by the soft feel and durability of the fabric. Already being annoyed by the low quality and high mark-ups in the fashion industry, I wanted to create a brand that offered luxury quality at a fair price point by re-imagining the traditional fashion industry business model.
… fabrics
So many fashion brands take the easy route and source their clothing from large fashion distributors who in turn get their clothing from large factories where there is no emphasis on quality. As a result, the clothing is often of poor quality and mass produced. For me, I always pay attention to the quality of the fabric – how it feels and how durable it is. At Grana our journey starts by sourcing the best fabrics and from there we determine our product offering. We source worldwide because each of the countries we source from has unique expertise and reputation for the fabrics they produce. I also think customers are becoming savvier and have a greater interest in where their clothing comes from. We source our fabrics from the world’s best mills in Peru, Japan, Mongolia, France, Ireland, and then work with leading garment makers to cut, sew and finish our products.
… inspiration
I personally do not come from a fashion background but I have always appreciated quality and I wanted to find a way to bring this to customers. I wanted to build a brand that appeals to everyone and our focus on selling timeless wardrobe staples does this. We don’t tell people how to dress, we supply them with the best wardrobe staples to create their own style. A white tee will look just as good teamed with shorts and a skate board on a 20 year old graphic designer from Sydney, as they would teamed with chinos and a blazer on a 40 year old architect in Paris.
… prices
Our prices are the lowest you will find in respect to the fabric quality. How we achieve this is simple; we deal directly with fabric mills, cut out all middlemen, eliminate the burdensome costs of physical stores and instead ship directly from our warehouse in Hong Kong. For instance, following the traditional model, a luxury t-shirt costs around US$6 to manufacture, and after all the markups from wholesalers and retailers, the t-shirt will retail for over US$50, resulting in a 8 times mark-up. At Grana we have developed a business model that is far more efficient. We design all our wardrobe staples in-house, cut out all middlemen, work directly with the world’s best fabric mills, and sell online only at Grana.com. This allows us to sell you the same luxury t-shirt for US$12. All our clothing is shipped direct to our customers from our warehouse in Hong Kong with DHL express at the lowest prices on the market. … ethical clothing
I think it is important that brands take responsibility for the entire manufacturing process. At Grana we are involved at every step of our supply chain from selecting our fabric mills to manufacturers. This allows us to have a greater degree of control and ensures all ethical standards are being upheld. We make sure all the fabric mills and garment makers we work with have the proper environmental practices and safe worker conditions. Plus, because we are sourcing high quality fabrics there is already a greater ethical integrity as our fabric mills have important reputations to uphold compared to cheaper fabric suppliers where a lot more ethical issues arise. In our own warehouse, we use energy efficient light bulbs, responsible water management, recycling and renewable energy where possible plus we soon plan to create a recycle program to enable customers to send in pre-loved clothes.
… design
Grana is a brand that sits complimentary to the fashion industry. Unlike high street labels we do not invest our resources into the production of fickle fashion trends, rather we focus on producing timeless wardrobe essentials that fit well and are made from the best fabrics. It is a constant evolutionary process to ensure we are continually producing the best wardrobe staples. In fast fashion, somewhere along the line compromises need to be made – for us the product is key and we are constantly researching and evaluating our offer to ensure it is the best possible. By avoiding seasonal fashion trends we can spend much more of our resources on perfecting a simple white t-shirt where as high street labels have too many seasonal demands which reduces their focus on product quality.
… favourites
For the past year I have been wearing a Grana t-shit every day. It is my wardrobe essential. Our Japanese denim jeans are also amazing, the Japanese denim fabric quality and the slim jeans fit is perfect.
… the future
Our Japanese denim jeans goes online on Friday 14th of November. We have 2 fits for men slim and slim straight and 2 fits for women, skinny and boyfriend. Anthony Hill, our Head of Design is working on our new lines coming soon including French poplin shirts, Mongolian cashmere sweaters, Irish linen shirts, English oxford shirts and USA twill chinos. In the future, I see GRANA becoming a leading online brand in the world. We will be shipping to over 200 countries and we will be selling a large number of products all based on the world’s best fabrics.
… how to shop
Go to GRANA.com and simply place an order online. We offer same day shipping with DHL Express. In addition, we are very excited to have a pop up shop from 14-16 November in Hong Kong called Grana Open Box. This allows our customers to experience our amazing fabrics and place an order directly within the shop. Especially for this event, we offer free shipping for anyone in Hong Kong and you will have your Grana box delivered on Monday.
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