Japanese apparel company Link Theory plans to generate of Y1 billion (£4.86 million) from Helmut Lang by 2008. The company, which recently acquired the fashion label for approximately €30 million (£21 million), added that it aimed to make it profitable in 2009.

Helmut Lang lost its sparkle after it was taken over by Prada in 1999. The designer of the label left the company last year and Prada then discontinued the line and closed its brand offices and stores. Link Theory’s plans for Helmut Lang therefore signify a major change for the long-suffering brand.

Link Theory’s acquisition of the brand marked the first time that a Japanese company purchased an international luxury designer brand. It also illustrates how Japanese retailers and apparel producers are increasingly looking overseas to boost growth and beat competition in the home market.

“(Japan) is not growing,� Link Theory chief executive Ricky Sasaki told the FT. “There are too many brands and too much competition. The US market is much bigger than Japan, and there is more room to grow in Europe.�

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Sasaki said his company would reposition the Helmut Lang label as a contemporary brand in order to reach a broader audience. The brand will be re-launched during the spring/summer 2007 collections and prices are expected to 20 to 30 percent higher than Theory, the brand Link Theory already produces and sells. A Theory jacket currently costs between $300 and $400.

“Our strength is the contemporary market, not the luxury market,� said Sasaki. “It is easier to localize contemporary fashion than luxury fashion.�

Link Theory will choose a new creative director for the brand by the end of May, and will hire a new design team of four to five people. Sasaki did not think it likely that Lang himself would return to the helm of the brand.

“The fact that Helmut Lang was no longer with the label was the reason I hesitated in the beginning,� he said. He also said that negotiations with Prada had taken about six months. “But fortunately or unfortunately, the brand exposure was much bigger than the actual person behind it.�

Link Theory’s CFO, Hidetsugu Onishi, said that the company hoped to generate said that the company hoped to generate Y3 billion in sales from Helmut Lang by 2009 and Y5 billion by 2010.