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The number of 'mini garment industries' has been maintaining a steady rise in Syedpur upazila of Bangladesh under the country's northern Nilphamari district. At present, there are more than 200 such industries, almost all of which are located in and around Syedpur municipality area.
Most of the small-scale and home-grown industrial units, dubbed as mini garment industries, comprise five to 25 traditional sewing machines. Insiders and local businessmen say roughly 5,000 employees work in different shifts in these units predominantly aiming to export their products to West Bengal of India, Bhutan, and Nepal.
Sources say that the production cost of these mini factories is relatively low as they preferably use stock-lot and waste cut pieces of cloth usually collected from the large ready-made garments (RMG) industries in Dhaka, Gazipur and Chittagong. This is used to make shirts, T-shirts, jackets, trousers and allied items.
However, the sources inform that this year these mini industries exported garment items worth Tk 3.6 billion to Siliguri and Jalpaiguri of West Bangal in India along with destinations in Nepal and Bhutan. The export figure is reported to be increasing every year as the mini industries exported to the tune of Tk 2.7 billion during the corresponding period of last year.
Although these tiny units are contributing substantially to the country's export basket, they still remain deprived of the country's statutory body Export Promotion Bureau's (EPB) membership. On this, local chamber leaders and traders lamented that they were seeking the EPB membership for so long.
The Lenzing Group, a global supplier of high-quality, botanic cellulose fibres to the global textile and nonwovens industry, has reduced its equity stake in EQUI-Fibres Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, Kelheim from 45 to 20 per cent. EQUI-Fibres is the parent company of Kelheim Fibres GmbH that manufactures viscose fibres at its plant in Kelheim, Germany.
EQUI-Fibres reported a total revenue of €162 million in 2015. The transaction represents the next logical step in the Lenzing Group’s implementation of its sCore TEN strategy. The buyer is a company represented by its managing directors Peter Untersperger and Gerald Schmidsberger. Untersperger is a known name and very familiar with both EQUI-Fibres and the fibre industry.
On the basis of this transaction, the financial result of the Lenzing Group for the current financial year is expected to increase by about €10-15 million. The payment of the stipulated purchase price is to take place starting in 2017.
The latest disturbances in the readymade garment (RMG) sector in Bangladesh are alarming as many countries are feeling bitter over Bangladesh's gradual progress in the sector. Though the government is not able to find out as to who is behind this unrest, Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed feels that there is an invisible force behind all this. He was speaking at a 'Meet the Reporters' programme that was organised by Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU).
The minister said local garment sector has been making brisk progress and to halt this progress, an invisible force has created the unrest. He said the RMG sector has suffered a lot due to various incidents like Rana Plaza collapse, Tazreen Fire and Holey Artisan terror attack. Now the untoward incidents at Ashulia happened all of a sudden.
Ahmed also said the RMG workers' wages were hiked several times. But the workers at Ashulia came to the streets without any discussion. On this, leaders of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that they would not concede anything this time.
In what is being described as a landmark step and a game changer for India’s domestic garment industry, the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution has sidelined the readymade garments from the purview of the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Act 2011. This will increase the ease of doing business and help in growth of retail business.
As per the Legal Metrology Act 2011, there were no clear labelling guidelines for loose garments which made it difficult for garment retailers to demarcate the labelling procedure between pre-packaged and loose garments. This would cause unnecessary inconvenience during inspections at apparel retail showrooms.
The Act mandates packaged commodities to incorporate name, descriptions, size, the full address and customer care number of the manufacturer. In practice, this created problems for clothing businesses. For example, the Act mandates garments size to be measured in centimetres in India. However, clothing sizes are measured globally in S (small), L (large), M (medium), XL (extra large), XXL etc. This created a problem for domestic manufacturers. Similarly, the Act mandates that the length be mentioned as ‘cms’ and labelit as ‘cm’ may hold the director of the company liable with possible imprisonment and fine.
Hence, the garment industry has been petitioning the government to rectify or modify the Act. Their argument was that mere putting garments in a plastic cover do not make them a pre-packaged commodity, as the idea was to protect the fabric from dust. The issue was, however, taken up by textiles minister Smriti Irani with the consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan, according to the Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of India (CMAI).
The removal of garments from the requirements of pre-packaged commodities will unburden more than 90 per cent of the industry as the rules will apply to packs of two-three shirts, handkerchiefs and innerwear as well. Garments, especially in loose form, would no longer be required to declare the name of manufacturers, year of manufacturing and expiry, etc.
World leader in integrated software and automation solutions for the apparel and industrial markets, Gerber Technology has named Helen Koo, assistant professor, Department of Design at University of California, Davis as the recipient of Gerber Technology’s FashionTech Professional award. Koo was selected because of the creative and practical projects designed by her students yielding breakthrough innovations in wearable technology.
Moreover, she has been recognized for founding the Fashion Design and Technology Lab at the University of California, Davis. Earlier, she conducted multidisciplinary funded research projects on developing functional gear for sports, protective products and clothing for extreme environments, and smart clothing with sensors for healthcare. Her recent works focus on developing wearable technology for people with chronic diseases and disabilities.
Gerber’s FashionTech Professional Award is a contest for FashionTech instructors, faculty and professionals from colleges and universities that are members of ITAA. The recipient of the award receives a subscription of Gerber software and training valued at $20,000 and includes industry-leading products such as AccuMark® and YuniquePLM as well as training through Gerber University.
It has been noticed that a number of sectors in Pakistan like light engineering, pharmaceuticals, and food processing have a far larger export potential than textiles but they remain at the bottom of the policy planners' priority list. Hence, it would be better that the country enacts a broad based industrial policy that would provide equal growth opportunities to all the sectors of economy.
In the years right after independence, planners in Pakistan provided incentives to the textile millers by arranging foreign loans for the purchase of machinery. The intent was to convert the cotton grown in the country into yarn and earn higher foreign exchange than the country was earning by exporting raw cotton. This opportunity was grabbed by the textile millers after which they went on launching one spinning mill after another but they never went for higher value addition.
The value-added exports in textiles were introduced in the late eighties by small entrepreneurs who brought samples from abroad and started producing garments locally. Such entrepreneurs grew by leaps and bounds while adding to the bulk of value-added textile exports of the country. They flourished without any facilitation from the state or financing from the banks.
Now, the banks preferentially finance them because they are better paymasters than makers of basic textiles. They have no loans standing against them. To be honest, the sector in trouble is the basic textiles. Despite being pampered by successive governments for over half a century, Pakistan’s share in textiles is less than 1.6 per cent. In fact, it has declined from 2 per cent a decade ago to its current level. Non-cotton producing countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam command twice as much share in global textile trade.
It is interesting to note the total share of textile and clothing in global trade is only 6 per cent of total world trade. The share of engineering goods in total global trade is over 60 per cent. This sector has remained neglected despite the fact the highest value-addition can be obtained from engineering products.
The second edition of the Blossom Première Vision was held at the Palais Brongniart Paris on December 13 and 14. The event meant for a preview of the fabric, leather, and accessory Spring Summer 18 collections, ended on a successful note. The event put forward a highly-pertinent response targeting market’s need for exclusives and new, custom proposals.
Over two days, Blossom Première Vision welcomed nearly 700 visitors from the most prestigious fashion and luxury houses, who came to discover and source new product developments and the latest fabric and colour innovations to build their pre-collections. The show dedicated to collection launches saw a positive momentum in line with the expectations of industry players, both exhibitors and visitors alike. This season, the show’s 81 industrial exhibitors went all in on creative novelties, presenting original and cutting-edge collections for spring summer 18.
In addition to the collections presented by 63 weavers and 5 accessories manufacturers, 13 tanners rounded out the offer. Presenting at the show for the first time, this new industry segment attracted the biggest French and international names in luxury leather goods and footwear.
The fashion professionals present voiced their enthusiasm for the show, which, with this 2nd edition, confirmed the coherence and effectiveness of its concept. Aligned with the timing of the pre-collections, the show has already been integrated into the calendars at major fashion houses.
Targeted by the show’s organisers for their high creative and quality positioning, visitors brought together leading French fashion houses (83 per cent of visitors), as well as a growing percentage of leading international brands. International visitors came from Italy (6 per cent), the UK (5 per cent), Germany, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands.
Astonishingly 70 per cent of the world’s top 240 international retailers like Adidas and Zara among others have European roots. Yet they have built a comprehensive network of stores around the world to match their global fan base, a report of JLL Destination Retail reveals.
Jonathan Bayfield, senior retail research analyst, JLL says that European retailers continue to have a strong presence in the global retail landscape and as more of these brands look internationally to drive sales and diversify, retail expansion is here to stay. In developing markets it’s the fast growing middle classes from Beijing and Jakarta in Asia Pacific, to Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, and a number of Latin American capitals that are boosting the growth for European retailers. On the other hand, mature retail markets such as London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong remain prime shopping destinations for increasing number of visitors.
However, with political and economic uncertainties creating waves at home, European retailers need to have the right international growth strategy in place. Adds Bayfield that the uncertain economic outlook and the growth of e-commerce in Western Europe is leading to a growing need for brands to continue to expand internationally in the right locations to achieve balanced sales growth.
The activities of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), Bangladesh could not expand its activities to other than the apparel industry due to reasons that include inadequate manpower and logistic support, sources say. The department is yet to begin its activities in full-swing despite necessity even more than two and half years after the up gradation of the state inspection entity, they maintain.
As a result, work place safety and many other issues in different sectors remain unsolved for long. The key objectives of upgrading the Labour Inspection Directorate to a full-fledged department was to make it more effective in dealing with workplace safety and workers' rights.
The necessity of bringing all the industrial units under inspection was considered following a series of industrial accidents especially the fire incidents including a packaging factory at Gazipur, cigarette factory at Ashulia and a chemical factory at Gazipur. Meanwhile, some 161 workers were killed and more than 200 injured in different types of accidents at the ship-breaking yards in Chittagong in last nine years - mainly due to absence of safety measures, industry insiders claimed. Inspections have been conducted only in the readymade garment sector out of more than 45 industrial sectors like jute, ship breaking, sugar, pharmaceutical, chemical, tannery, poultry, hotel, plastic, brick field, tea, bidi and match industry.
Bangladeshi investors are interested to invest in the apparel sector of Ethiopia. This because the country has easily trainable workforce, great climate and facilities like electricity and good road networks, said Bangladeshi ambassador to Ethiopia, M Monirul Islam. Textile and garment companies from the US, China, India and Sri Lanka are also eyeing the textile sector of the African nation.
Swedish government owned development financier Swedfund along with the Bangladeshi conglomerate DBL Group are also establishing a textile factory in Mekelle, Ethiopia, which will provide job opportunities for 4,000 people. This facility is expected to start producing apparel by mid 2017, Islam told the Ethiopian press.
Around 15 textile and garment companies from the US, China, India, Sri Lanka and six local companies are setting up their operations in the park. Once fully operational, the industries within the park will create a total of 60,000 jobs in double shift.
Labour intensive textile and garment industry sector can empower women by offering them financial liberty, observed Islam. He also said that as compared to the traditional jobs which generate minimum income, women can benefit more if they get the opportunity to work in the apparel and textile sector.
Bangladesh’s textile sector employs about 4 million people, 90 per cent of whom are women. He said that women can lead good lives by working in the apparel sector and Ethiopia can learn from Bangladesh about how to empower women.
