<B>>Why do you feel justified in producing items with the Ralph Lauren logo?</B>

My company negotiated for the franchise of the brand name from Aurdally Brothers & Co. Legally they were the ones with the right to exploit the logo. If we had obtained the rights from the parent company in the USA, the Aurdally brothers would have sued us.

<B>>Since it is generally believed that your business produces fakes, didn?t you even slightly expect this situation to happen? Why are you so outraged now?</B>

We saw ourselves as doing something perfectly legal. Even when the police in the past seized items with the Ralph Lauren logo, it never happened in shops owned by us. We are outraged because we invested massive sums of money in a perfectly legal way to set up our firm and market our products. We even contacted Polo/Lauren Company in the USA, but they were not interested in working with us.

<B>>You already have assets such as factories and workers. Is it really so difficult to recycle into the production of another trademark? Why not create your own?</B>

It is too difficult for us to do that in Mauritius. This is a tiny country and salaries are too low for people to afford a luxury brand and make it fashionable. For a brand to take off, the territory must have a population much bigger than that of Mauritius. The country also lacks resources, with only two suppliers of fabrics that produce mainly cotton. In the high-class fashion sector, fabrics, technology and research are important aspects that are not sufficiently exploited here. There are not enough local designers that meet and share views and we are not up to date with fashion. In addition there is not enough publicity in places like the USA or the Far East for a Mauritian brand to become known. 90 % of the population in the USA has never heard of Mauritius?