The value clothing market has become increasingly competitive. Not only have many of the retailers in this sector really got their act together in terms of upgrading store environments and enhancing their product offers - becoming, in effect, the 'new lower middle market', but the middle market has been fighting back. The last 18 months have seen a strong recovery at M&S, and Bhs - that describes itself as 'premium value'- is also a much stronger player.

Therefore, there is more and better choice for consumers. However, while 2001 and 2002 were buoyant years for retail and for clothing, 2003 is seeing a significant slowdown. It is much quantifiably harder to persuade consumers to spend. A key factor is that value clothing retailers now know that they cannot succeed with low prices alone. Consumers expect a pleasant environment and mainstream-quality merchandise even if they are paying very little. So they have had to make very significant investments into their store estates - at a time when many are expanding rapidly too. Also, this space and product expansion has been very challenging. Many have found that their infrastructure, systems, IT and logistics have just not been up to it and this has affected their sales performance.

Mintel’s ‘Value Clothing Retailing in the UK’ has been designed to offer you a clear and practical understanding of this market's retailers and the strategies that they have employed over the past 18 months, as well as their future prospects. It provides a major overview of the developments that are shaping the market, examining the sector's trends in great detail. Through interviewing top executives in this sector, as well as conducting research designed especially to probe the most popular value retailers and the attitudes of customers towards these stores, Mintel provides a deep insight into the key issues that are shaping the market. In order to ensure this latest research can be easily integrated into your marketing activity, Mintel's report pays particular attention to two stand out issues, both with huge implications to market players:

How can value clothing retailers continue to drive forward growth in a much more competitive, slower growth market?

How will they differentiate themselves, now that most have upgraded stores, enhanced their product ranges and offer low prices?

Offering you new insight into:

- Retail sales

- Market factors

- Retail market shares

- Retailer profiles

- Trade perspective

- Consumer attitudes and purchasing trends

- Future trends

- Five year sales forecasts

Other related reports include:

- Clothing Retailing - Europe, Retail Intelligence, August 2003

- Childrenswear Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, May 2003

- Underwear Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, April 2003

- Womenswear Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, September 2002

- Menswear Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, August 2002

- Footwear Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, June 2002.

Definitions

This report on Value Clothing Retailing is a significant change to the last reports that Mintel published on this sector:

- Menswear Discount Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, July 2001

- Womenswear Discount Retailing - UK, Retail Intelligence, April 2001.

For this report Mintel has brought together both the menswear and womenswear retailers into one report - as many sell both categories anyway - and also included childrenswear as part of the analysis of the market.

Some of the retailers that were included in the last report have been excluded, as they are no longer seen as part of the core value clothing retail sector. The criterion for being categorised as a 'value clothing retailer', and thus included in the market size, is that the prime proposition of the retailer/the brand/the stores is low price and promotional/discounting.

Therefore, this report does not include:

- New Look - still offering great value but now much more middle market and focused on fashion, especially fast fashion

- Mackays - mainstream price positioning

- Pilot - fashion positioning

- Bay Trading - mainstream price positioning and fashion positioning.

However, this report does now include Select, the womenswear chain with over 200 stores, as its positioning is not dissimilar to that which New Look used to occupy.

Mintel includes George at Asda and Tesco, but does not include Jeff & Co at Sainsbury's as this is a different (higher) price level and brand positioning. While factory outlet centres have been growing strongly over the last two years, their position in the market is somewhat different in that the majority of retailers are reducing prices on premium-priced lines and designer brands. This sector is touched upon in this report, but for more detail readers should refer to Mintel's report on Factory Outlet Centres in Europe, August 2003.

By clothing, Mintel includes clothing for men, women and children; outerwear, underwear and accessories. Footwear is not examined specifically in this report, but is included in the sales figures of individual value clothing retailers.