Grocery’s move into the apparel sector has evolved from offering competitively priced everyday essentials to making a serious move into fashion. Not just cheap fashion. These retailers are looking to fill that unmet consumer demand for quality at affordable prices. In other words, consumers want value-for-money and supermarkets are seizing the opportunity to extend the value proposition they have already established for groceries into apparel. In the UK, Asda’s George line has gone from strength to strength, as has Tesco’s F&F range. Morrison’s launched its Nutmeg apparel line in early 2013 and is continuing to develop it. Ladies dresses range from £7.5 to £35 ($9-43). Mens jumpers retail for around £20 ($24). Mens jeans retail from £20-24 (US$24-30). Now Sainsbury’s is going a step further, creating new fashion destination spaces across nine of its stores that will provide a curated offer of complementary brand partners alongside its popular Tu clothing ranges. The move is the start of a new venture to create at least 50 fashion destination hubs in its stores and will also see the retailer grow its branded proposition at pace over the next five years, as it remains focused on meeting its customers' evolving needs. “We’ve been harnessing the strength of our much-loved own brand range, Tu clothing, to successfully introduce fashion brands online over the last year. Building on the success we’ve seen at tu.co.uk, we’re delighted to launch our new fashion destination hubs to offer customers a curation of exciting brands when they shop with us in store,” said Christine Kasoulis, Clothing Director. <h3><b>A Category Developed Over Two Decades</b></h3> Tu was launched in 2004, offering design-led, high quality, value fashion across womenswear, menswear and childrenswear. The sixth largest clothing retailer in the UK by volume, Tu offers everything from a broad range of lingerie, lounge and nightwear, denim, key fashion pieces, everyday essentials and school wear. Tu also offers a range of specialist sizes with its own brand Petites and Maternity ranges, as well as working with selected brand partners. Sainsbury’s has made significant investments into the addition of third-party clothing brands such as Sosandar, Simply Be and Finery, in selected Sainsbury’s stores that will support its ambitions to become a leading physical and digital destination for family fashion in the UK. The move will offer Sainsbury’s 23 million customers carefully curated brands alongside Tu clothing across both Tu.co.uk and the new fashion destination hubs on the shop floor. <h3><b>Raising the Bar on Fashion</b></h3> “We’re collaborating with brilliant partners that align to our values and who we hope will introduce new customers to our Tu clothing range while giving our existing customers even more variety,” said Ms. Kasoulis. By working closely with these brands Sainsbury’s will retail exclusive product ranges and support the expansion of the broader clothing offering, particularly across more specialist product areas such as curve, maternity, lingerie and tailoring. Sosandar is one of the fastest growing women’s fashion brands in the UK. “This partnership will expand our reach even further. We are looking forward to working together to provide customers with stunning, quality clothing for all occasions,” said Ali Hall and Julie Lavington, Co-CEOs of Sosandar. These brand partners provide shoppers with greater choice and are helping to drive new customer acquisition, catering to the demand Tu is seeing for an increased selection of fashion brands, broader range of styles and price ranges to supplement its popular own brand range. For example, almost 40% of branded sales at Tu.co.uk this year has come from its contemporary clothing brand offer. The initial nine stores included in the launch of these fashion destination hubs will offer a curated edit of women’s fashion from established brands such as Sosandar and Simply Be and collections from Finery, Little Mistress by Vogue Williams, Thought, Burgs and Brakeburn. Customers will also be able to shop the full range of over 30 brand partners online at Tu.co.uk.