Coach. Inc. says owes its success to Chinese gov't

U.S.-based luxury brand Coach said China has provided it with adequate protection in intellectual property rights, which is crucial for the company's huge success in the Chinese market.
"We work very collaratively with the Chinese government in protecting intellectual property rights," Lew Frankfort, Coach. Inc.'s chairman and CEO, told an annual gathering of top business leaders from China and the United States here Thursday.
"We achieved understanding with both local and central officials about how important to protect the intellectual property of companies that provide jobs in China," he said in an address to the 20th Annual Conference of the Committee of 100.
He said the Chinese government has been always providing support for Coach in protecting property rights, while Coach's own investigators work with Chinese officials to investigate and stop forged production.
Frankfort said, after years of development in China, Coach has forged a good relationship with local business as well as government agencies. "Now we manufacture in China, and also sell in China."
"First, we started with the Chinese consumer, to understand their wants, to analyse their values in order to better serve them," he said.
Over past three decades under Frankfort's leadership, Coach has grown from a 6-million-U.S. dollar cottage-industry manufacturer of leather goods to a 3.6-billion-dollar top international brand.
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