The company launched seven new T-shirt styles at the beginning 2005 - the Layered T, Super Premium T Long Sleeve, Baseball T Short Sleeve, Baseball T Long Sleeve, Lady-Fit Valueweight T, Lady-Fit Crew Neck T Long Sleeve, and Valueweight Toddler T.

Basic styles remained as the best sellers overall, however the new fashion-forward styles also fired buyers' imaginations, prompting an enthusiastic welcome from the trade. This has prompted Fruit of the Loom to launch another fashionable T-shirt style - the Ringer T - in 2006.

Vice President of Marketing Jane Goodman said, ‘It is important to offer a comprehensive corporate and promotional wear solution in today's competitive marketplace, and Fruit of the Loom's line extension has developed rapidly over recent years.

‘However, the T-shirt is still the number one choice for promotional clothing campaigns in Europe and we have worked hard to maintain our position as the leader in this field. As well as introducing a wider choice of T-shirts designs, we have improved our fabrics, enhanced fit and finishing details, controlled costs and updated the colour palette to reflect changing customer requirements. Today, T-shirts bearing the Fruit of the Loom label represent better choice, better quality and better value than ever.’

In 2005, Fruit of the Loom added new colours to the Valueweight T (and Junior Valueweight T), Super Premium T, Lady-Fit Crew Neck T, V-Neck T and Sleeveless T, plus the Lady-Fit Polo, Premium Polo, Set-In Sweat and Hooded Sweat. Contemporary new choices, such as Almond, Light Graphite, Metallic Heather, and Steel Blue were well received by those garment decorators and their customers looking to differentiate themselves and their businesses within the marketplace.

Apart from basic T-shirts, the other major success story of 2005 for Fruit of the Loom was the expanded Lady-Fit collection. The new Lady-Fit Raglan Sweat, Lady-Fit Sweat Jacket and Lady-Fit Jog Pants joined the aforementioned Lady-Fit Valueweight T, bringing Fruit of the Loom's renowned quality, consistency and availability to the women's fleece sector for the first time. With 11 women's styles now on offer, covering T-shirts, polos, sweats, jog pants and microfleece jackets, Jane Goodman predicts that demand for the Lady-Fit styles will “really take off” in 2006.

Fruit of the Loom is also predicting strong demand for its Polos collection, and in particular, the company's durable 65/35 Polo styles. The appeal of the three styles will be significantly increased now that the garments are guaranteed to perform at a 60°C wash. (The Super Premium T Short Sleeve and Super Premium T Long Sleeve are similarly rated.)

Jane said, ‘The 65/35 Polos have always offered the superior durability and wear performance required by corporate and workwear customers; they now offer similarly impressive wash characteristics, along with a superb choice of colours and sizes, unrivalled consistency, and availability that is second to none.

‘This combination of selling points will help our customers to compete even more effectively for corporate and workwear buyers' business in 2006.’

The new Fruit of the Loom catalogue contains full details of the company's imprint collection for 2006. For more information, or to order your catalogue, please visit the company's European website at www.fruitoftheloom.com, or contact Customer Services on 01952 682900 or email : cust_enquiry@ftlte.fruit.com.

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