WestPoint freshens moderate price towels

Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 3/5/2001

NEW YORK -Filling a void in its pricing strategy, WestPoint Stevens introduced two new towel lines, Renew and Patrician Plus.

Renew will fall under the Martex label of the home textiles manufacturer, based here, while the Patrician Plus line will jump into the space left open by the Esprit license. The introduction of both creates new pricing categories for WestPoint Stevens in the mid and lower price ranges.

"We're excited about both lines and the opportunity they give us to enter new price markets," said Kathleen Cwirko, senior vp, marketing. "It's a great product line, and the design team has come up with great designs."

The Renew line will carry a $7.99 price point and will be sized at 27" x 54". It will be constructed of long-staple, finer-grade California cotton, in a palette of 10 "lively" colors and in a 14-pound weight. A proprietary spinning process will be used in the manufacturing process of the solid-color line, and a new hang tag depicting a sunset with children frolicking in the surf will also be used.

The 27" x 50" Patrician Plus towels will retail for $12.99 and will be constructed of 14-and-a-half pound plied ring-spun cotton.

WestPoint Stevens expects the towels to be ready for shipping by the fall to department and specialty stores.

Three patterns for the line are in development now with interim working names assigned to each.

Iris uses cutout paper stencils of the delicate flower worked onto a background of soft, geometric panels. It will be offered in four colorways: a neutral complemented with linen and silver; blue and green; blue and teal; and mauve and purple.

Combining vine, leaf and spiral motifs in uneven vertical stripes will be Vineleaf. Two neutral colorways-a soft linen offset with sage and a gentle blue/green-will be accompanied by two slightly more striking tones, pecan combined with charcoal and a deep navy with purple.

The third towel in the Patrician Plus line will be Asher Square. Concentric boxes arranged into a grid present a contemporary geometric theme. Black and white, navy and white, linen and sage, and periwinkle blue and white colorways will coordinate with the colorways offered for both Iris and Vineleaf.