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The Tamil Nadu government is introducing a slew of programs for the state’s textile sector. These include: increasing free power to handloom from 100 units to units 200 units a month and from 500 units to 700 units a month for the powerlooms.
Some of the initiatives being taken are unstinted support to private-public partnership in the form of textile parks and seeking additional Central assistance of around Rs 200 crores for upgrading 18 common effluent treatment plants in Tirupur, says Handloom and Textile minister O S Manian. Speaking at the inauguration of National Handloom Week, Manian recalled during her June 14 meet with prime minister Narendra Modi, chief minister Jayalalithaa had sought the Centre’s support for Tirupur effluent treatment project, additional funds to the tune of Rs 1,200 crores under the Technology Upgradation Front, initiatives for the welfare of those involved in the textile and handlooms industry were some of the points raised in that meeting.
In the next five years, textile major Raymond expects sales from the branded apparel division to grow four-fold from the current over Rs 1,000 crores and the fabrics business to double from around Rs 3,000 crores. This was revealed by Mohit Dhanjal, Director-Retail, Raymond who added the company is currently expanding its presence to new regions and launching new products using technology.
Dhanjal was speaking at the launch of its social initiative 'Look Good, Do Good' under which the company offers free stitching of trousers to those who bring old trousers. Currently, Raymond derives around 65 per cent of its business from fabrics and around 35 per cent from branded apparels. The growth would also come from new and renovated stores across the country.
Raymond, which unveiled around 70 stores in the last fiscal, plans to open around 100 stores in the current fiscal. This would include the ones in tier IV and V towns in India. The company operates around 715 Raymond stores in the country. Of these, around 660 are franchisees and its products also reach around 17,000 multi brand outlets in 380 towns and cities.
The Pakistani textiles industry that faces serious challenges regarding water and energy costs has a solution in hand to make the industry more globally competitive. It now plans to use of innovative enzyme solutions to reduce overall costs. To highlight the solutions within sustainable biochemistry, the Royal Danish Embassy, in collaboration with the global industry leader Novozymes is organising a series of seminars, business meetings and textile mill visits in Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi this week.
Speaking at the first seminar in Lahore, Jakob Rogild Jakobsen, Charge d' Affaires of the Royal Danish Embassy observed that Danish companies are known for their innovation and technically proven solutions to some of the key challenges being faced by industry in Pakistan. Together Danish and Pakistani companies can forge partnerships in variety of sectors to benefit from each other's competences.
In the area of textiles where textile industry of Pakistan is constantly faced with challenges of energy and water shortage as well as high cost of raw materials that directly hampers its competitiveness in the international market, sustainable technological solutions can support the industry in mitigating these challenges. Some of the solutions presented during the seminars showed that energy costs could be cut by 25 per cent, water consumption reduced by up to 75 per cent, processing temperatures reduced to 20°C and processes shortened by up to 90 minutes.
The Central Silk Board (CSB) has appointed noted sericulturist and weaver K M Hanumantharayappa as its new chairman for a period of three years. As the 25th chairman of the Board, Hanumantharayappa succeeds N S Bissegowda. Incidentally, Hanumantharayappa is a senior political leader from BJP and hails from Doddaballapura, a traditional silk weaving cluster in Karnataka.
Having served as the member to the Central Silk Board from 2000-2002, Hanumantharayappa is also the President of Karnataka State Nekarara Horata Samithi (weaver's association) and has also served as Chairman of Karnataka Silk Marketing Board (KSMB) of Karnataka government between 2010 and 2013. Hanumantharayappa was also awarded the Best Agriculturist Award by the Government of Karnataka earlier.
Paving way for the introduction of fixed-term employment in the textile and apparels sector, the Labour Ministry has notified changes in the rules of the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947. On August 4, the Ministry notified the changes in rules under which a fixed term workman will be considered at par with permanent workman in terms of working hours, wages, allowances and other statutory dues. These rules will be effective from the date of notification.
‘He shall also be eligible for all statutory benefits available to a permanent workman proportionately according to the period of service rendered by him even though his period of employment does not extend to the qualifying period of employment required in the statute,’ the notification read. However, badli or fixed term employment workman in apparel manufacturing sector shall not be entitled to any notice or pay in lieu thereof, if his services are terminated.
One may remember that on June 22 last, the Union cabinet had approved special package for employment generation and promotion of exports in textile and apparel sector that included reforms in the Employee Provident Fund Scheme, increase in overtime cap, introducing fixed-term employment, additional incentives for the garment sector besides enhancing the duty drawback coverage.
Jeanologia, will present ‘One Glass, One Garment’, the process that manages to minimize the use of water in jean finishing at Sourcing at Magic to be held in Las Vegas from August 14 to 17.
The leading Spanish company that develops sustainable solutions for textile industry has been driving the transformation of the textile industry towards sustainability. Sourcing at Magic is a one-of-a kind convergence of fashion’s global supply chain that connects established and emerging brands to an unparalleled network of manufacturers, materials, technology, logistic solutions and talent.
In collaboration with Sourcing at Magic, Jeanologia will offer advice to companies and brands who want to produce a more sustainable, efficient, automated and transparent way. Jeanologia has succeeded in reducing the amount of water needed to give the final look of jeans to a single glass when on average 70 liters of water are used.
The revolutionary new One Glass, One Garment finishing process is made possible by the efficient combination of Jeanologia technologies: laser, the ozone G2 and the nanobubbles eFlow, the latter being the integral ingredient which allows the reduction of jean finishing to a single glass of water.
The new sustainable process puts at the disposal of the industry get finishes like dark look and soft type rinse, authentic vintage finish due to the combination of the laser and the eflow. Moreover the natural used look, aged and dirty effects through the tinted with eFlow technology. The finishing possibilities with 'One Glass, One Garment' are endless.
In collaboration with Sourcing at Magic, Jeanologia will offer advice to companies and brands who want to produce a more sustainable, efficient, automated and transparent way.
Sourcing at Magic is held in Las Vegas in February and August every year at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Invista, the owner of ‘Lycra’ brand and a leading integrated producer of polymers and fibres has rolled-out the next generation of Lycra Sport technology. The innovative Lycra Sport technology is scientifically engineered to deliver exceptional comfort, fit and support to stretch active wear, according to the manufacturer.
The new platform combines the proven stretch technology of Lycra fibre with demanding testing standards that measure fabric performance descriptors on a simplified 1-10 scale of three indexes. The power index measures the compression delivered by the garment’s fabric. Higher the power index greater the shaping or compression effect. The Comfort Index relates to the insight that consumers often complain about being uncomfortable in compression or shaping garments. The higher the comfort index, the more comfort the wearer experiences.
Finally, the innovative new Energy Index rates the energy exerted by the body due to fabric construction. The lower the energy index, the lower the effort needed to move the fabric, making it ideal for competitive sports activities. The overall index approach to Lycra Sport technology covers the broad spectrum of fabrics, helping to assure comfort from soft control, yoga-type applications to high compression applications, such as running and cycling. Lycra Sport technology can also be combined with other Lycra brand technologies, like Lycra Black technology, to offer additional performance benefits for enhanced consumer value.
The new Lycra Sport platform is also said to offer mills a simplified fabric certification process, enabling clients to access hang tags and other promotional materials. Lycra brand hangtags are designed to drive sales by clearly communicating fabric benefits and the quality assurance the Lycra brand name offers consumers.
At the Blue Zone International Denim Trade Fair to be held in Munich from August 30 and 31, four leading companies from the textile and clothing supply chain viz Santoni, Unitin, Lenzing and Tonello will launch a stretch indigo denim concept - DEN/IM, I am DENIM that brings new innovation to athleisure-wear. DEN/IM is a revolutionary product: true Denim that goes beyond itself to change the rules of the game. Garments that are seasonless, life-style friendly and can be worn from the studio to the street are the new ‘must-have’ according to leading Italian seamless knitting machine builder Santoni. In addition, Santoni’s Green Label seamless Athleisure is all about comfort, style and performance and so the design, flexibility and styling options that come with seamless technology make Santoni and Indigo Knits ideal partners.
New Santoni machine SM8/EVO4J GG20 has been used for developing a total new look capsule collection that offers body hugging, comfortable, sporty, chic and trendy denim items from head to toe. This product concept further enhances the idea of innovative knit denim as a counter-point to the traditional woven denim fabric. The genuine DNA of denim is maintained with contributions from Lenzing, Unitin and Tonello.
Lenzing too has been thinking ahead and so, it has plans to embed Tencel fibre further into the denim market. Great attention has been given to environmental aspects from the class-leading man made cellulosic fiber in Tencel to the low-impact finishes developed by Tonello, such as laser and ozone.
The sixth edition of the two-day semi-annual Denimsandjeans Bangladesh show will take place at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka from October 5th. The theme for the event is ‘Vintage recall’, denim goes back to its roots. This time, the show has scheduled two seminars by international experts who will share their ideas on different prospects of denim.
After five successful events, the international denim exhibition hopes to live up to the high expectations for its sixth edition. The show provides a platform for global denim buyers who come together to interact and establish the basis for future trade with key suppliers from Bangladesh. Delving into the past has been the trend high in fashion lately and jeans designs are re-adopting the styles of the early 90s: the colour, the slubs, the weave, the looks of the period are back in vogue.
The current production of denim involves state of the art technology in spinning, weaving and finishing, and the industry is pondering over possibilities of incorporating vintage characteristics in the look while retaining the feel of present times through the weave. By 2020, the global market for denim is expected to be over $64 billion out of which 70 per cent would come from Asia. The last show featured an exclusively European-style fashion show, bringing out interesting competition among the students of fashion universities of Bangladesh, giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills to an international audience.
Cramer-Krasselt (C-K), the Chicago-based independent ad agency will be teaming up with the Cotton Council International (CCI) whose goal is to help increase the demand for US cotton for overseas export. CCI announced their decision to hire C-K recently with the stated goal of working with the agency in global brand marketing and communication efforts to promote the export of US cotton fiber, manufactured cotton products and cottonseed.
Karen Seamen, President and COO of Chicago –based Cramer-Krasselt feels the move as an exciting, highly competitive global category and US cotton is outstanding in its quality. Cramer-Krasselt is the second largest independent advertising agency in the U.S.
CCI, the overseas promotion arm of the National Cotton Council of America, has 20 offices in 18 countries and covers more than 50 countries. Through its 'Cotton USA' programme, CCI offers support to customers at each stage of the supply chain, from the cotton farmer and exporter, to the brand and retailer.
According to Bruce Atherley, executive director of CCI, it's an important time in their organization's history to add an expert agency partner to help us communicate the benefits of US cotton to our audiences from a center out approach. Their decision to hire C-K was based on CCI’s confidence in the quality of the team, business orientation, strategic insights and creativity.
