Vedette is a company, headquartered in Williamson, Georgia

Williamson, Georgia

Williamson is a town in Pike County, Georgia, United States. The population was 297 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Williamson is located at ....

, USA, that manufactures and markets undergarments for women, with an emphasis on shapewear

Foundation garment

A foundation garment is an undergarment designed to temporarily alter the wearer's body shape, to achieve a more fashionable figure...

 undergarments which are functionally designed to help wearers achieve a desired body form for aesthetic purposes, but can also be used as post-surgical support or to encourage posture discipline. Vedette intends to market its products towards more affluent consumers by using more costly materials, focusing on detailed design and appearance in addition to function, and borrowing design elements from intimates, lingerie

Lingerie

Lingerie are fashionable and possibly alluring undergarments.Lingerie usually incorporates one or more flexible, stretchy materials like Lycra, nylon , polyester, satin, lace, silk and sheer fabric which are not typically used in more functional, basic cotton undergarments.The term in the French...

, and traditional corsets. Vedette also maintains a standard product line for budget-conscious buyers and a few products for men.

Company and divisions

The Vedette brand currently employs around 300 to 350 employees at several locations around the globe, operating under various localized company names:

• United States: Orion Manufacturing, Inc. operates as the global headquarters in Williamson (near Atlanta, Georgia
  Atlanta, Georgia
  Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
  
  ) and is mainly responsible for international sales and international shipping to all destinations except Colombia.

• Colombia: C.I. Inducorset operates as the regional headquarters in Tuluá (near Cali, Colombia), and is responsible for international sales in Spanish speaking markets and shipping within Colombia. Vedette's main factory, responsible for final garment assembly, also operates in Tuluá, employing local labor. Vedette operates two retail stores in Colombia, in Bogotá
  Bogotá
  Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
  
   and in Tuluá.

• Mexico: A retail store location and a smaller factory responsible for manufacturing some precursor parts operates in Mexico City
  Mexico City
  Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
  
  .

• Philippines: SEA Global CC operates as the regional headquarters in Makati City
  Makati City
  The City of Makati is one of the 17 cities that make up Metro Manila, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines and one of the major financial, commercial and economic hubs in Asia...
  
  , and is responsible for international sales in English.

Sales

Vedette's annual sales have grown at an average of 25% to 30% per year, with annual sales totaling nearly $9 million in 2008.

History

Vedette was founded in 1983 in Tuluá, Colombia. After growing quickly in its home country and throughout South and Central America, Vedette expanded in 1998: first to Texas, then to Florida, and finally to Georgia to serve the emerging shapewear market in the United States, concentrating on the Hispanic community. Vedette has since grown to serve a much greater variety of international and domestic clients and continues to expand its target market through increasing focus on Internet sales.

Press

Vedette has been referred to or featured in several magazines and trade publications, most notably: Body (U.S. edition), Vanidades

Vanidades

Vanidades is one of the most popular Spanish language women's magazines. Published by Editorial Televisa across the United States and Hispanic America, it was launched in Cuba in 1931 as a humor magazine, but eventually became a women's magazine in the early 1940s. When Fidel Castro took the...

(Mexican edition), En Forma (Colombian edition), and TV y Novelas (Colombian edition)
.

External links

• vedettestore.com (Official Vedette retail website)
• bbb.org (Better Business Bureau
  Better Business Bureau
  The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...
  
  listing for Orion Manufacturing)