FW
Denims available in the West come from far-flung places across the continent. Thomas Huriez, a young French man decided to walk a different path and introduce an eco-friendly version of the much-loved jeans. Huriez opened his multi-brand organic clothing store in 2007, but soon realised that there were few people who made eco denims and shoes and he didn’t have enough to stock up. So, he decided to fill the racks with an imaginative new label that ensure denim gets back to its nation of birth. The thick indigo fabric started under the name ‘Serge de Nimes’ or ‘de Nimes’ thus named after the French town from where it originated. Huriez launched ‘1083’, working on this basis and wanting to make the world a cleaner place.
His company takes its name ‘1083’ from the distance between the two furthest points of France: 1,083 km. It operates on the basis that its denims and shoes are made and sold on home ground, thus eliminating any connection with sweat shops and long-haul travel. Up and running for two years now, the brand is based the South-eastern district of Romans sur Isère and has already attracted enough attention to have 20 employees. Huriez says he is surprised by the rapid success of the project. However, he says he won’t steer away from his original plan by the lucrative potential of exports.
Huriez would, in fact like to use his business idea as a model to inspire entrepreneurs in other European countries to follow him. If there was a demand from UK, Germany, or France, though, he said, they would export for a limited period and sell with a note explaining what they were doing.
Avantex, the trade fair for high-tech fashion fabrics, will open its doors with around 30 exhibitors from September 14, 2015. The fair would welcome exhibitors from Germany, Austria, Belgium, China, France, Switzerland, Taiwan and Thailand, to its first event in Paris Le Bourget. The two days will see seminars dedicated to technology for fashion, Avantex fashion show
Visitors will be able view an assortment of intelligent fabrics developed using nanotechnology, cosmetic or luminous textiles and connected fabrics. They will also be able to develop customised finishes and special coatings with weavers, embroiderers and start-up businesses.
Commenting on the show, Michael Scherpe, CEO of Messe Frankfurt France said, “With Avantex, we are bringing something new to Paris, which will be able to boast a trade fair dedicated to products for tomorrow’s fashion. We have always been responsive to market development and are delighted to have been able to establish this event to promote technological textiles, which even the professionals don’t know much about.”
Each exhibitor is offering added value and developments which should be of interest to fashion labels and designers, many of which want to integrate technology into their creations. The selection committee is relying on experts from the Taiwan Textile Federation for its choice of exhibitors. Taiwan, the country with the majority of exhibitors, will be represented by 18 companies, six of which will be in the Taiwan Textile Federation’s pavilion. Europe will be represented by six companies.
Visitors will be able to begin their discovery of the fair at the dedicated Avantex Forum, where Louis Gérin and Grégory Lamaud, the artistic directors, will highlight a selection of the exhibitors’ themes and developments. The complexity of the added technological value influences the price of the fabrics. A series of seminars featuring speakers, exhibitors and experts from start-ups and European and Taiwanese organisations will highlight the future of fashion and how technology will have an impact on the textiles.
Visitors will also be able to experience the application of technical fabrics to fashion at four scheduled fashion shows. They will highlight creations made by French designers using fabrics from the exhibitors and collections assembled by the exhibitors themselves.
www.avantex.com
Maersk Line has announced discontinuation of its ME5 Indian subcontinent-Mediterranean link – a capacity reduction of around 16 per cent of its services between the Middle East-Indian subcontinent and Europe. The company meanwhile has said that it would add new port calls on its ME1, ME2 and ME3 services and launch a feeder shuttle service linking Chennai, Colombo and Salalah to compensate for the termination.
The current schedule of the ME5 launched this February included Chennai, Colombo, Salalah, Djibouti, Jeddah, Aqaba, Port Said, Genoa, Valencia and Algeciras, deploying seven vessels of around 4,600 teu turning in seven weeks. The Danish company’s move is viewed as a step to safeguard against the worsening global freight rates owing to low demand. But it would have a negative impact on several global clothing retailers which rely on feeder links to Colombo from the apparel production hub of Bangladesh.
Over 50 per cent of India’s container cargo is transhipped at ports outside the country, such as Colombo, Singapore, Salalah and Jebel Ali, since a few of its own ports can accommodate the biggest containerships that now ply the deep-sea routes. But a lack of direct access to ports and the infrastructure issues are holding the country’s prospects despite an opportunity amid declining Chinese yuan.
www.maerskline.com
The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Bangladesh government have launched an initiative to make garment workers aware of their rights and responsibilities. A radio show was launched recently as a part of this initiative to help workers in the export-oriented readymade garment, leather and shrimp industries, to understand their rights and responsibilities in the workplace in a better manner. The one-hour radio talk show, a weekly, is titled ‘Amar Shrom Amar Odhikar (My Labour, My Rights)’. The show is being launched by the government in collaboration with the ILO and also supported by Norway.
Hasanul Haq Inu, Information Minister, believes that the show will attract a large number of listeners (workers) from across the country. He also feels it will boost understanding of basic labour issues to the benefit of both, workers and employers, by covering important issues in an interesting and informative manner. The show’s main targets are workers, supervisors and factory-level managers.
Srinivas B Reddy, ILO Country Director said the show will help improve industrial relationship in Bangladesh and they also plan to feature a variety of speakers including experts on labour rights, union leaders and other special guests who, he believes will really help listeners understand workplace issues that are important to them.
Listeners will be able to tune into the radio show in all major industrial areas such as Dhaka, Cox's Bazar, Khulna, Bogra, Chittagong, Sylhet, Barisal, and Mymensingh.
USAID will provide $18 million for RMG factory upgrades in Bangladesh, along with the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. A group of 26 North American retailers that are a part of the Alliance and USAID will sign an agreement soon on the funding programme, which would allow the participating local banks to provide low-cost loans for garment factories to improve their structural, electrical and fire safety infrastructure.
The Alliance has already completed preliminary inspections into its member factories in its two years in Bangladesh. Janina Jaruzelski, Mission Director of USAID for Bangladesh, said they would provide funds to help small and medium companies improve their workers’ safety and factory environment adding that they want to see Bangladesh as the leading apparel manufacturer in the world.
James Moriarty, Executive Director of the Alliance stated that the Alliance is making factories safer for millions of workers by making finance more widely available and affordable, and working with factory owners to make the necessary repairs He added that all factories can pass the Alliance's remediation verification visit, though progress is slow and that more than a million workers and security guards have been trained under their fire safety training programme.
Six factories are 100 per cent compliant and another 50-60 will be compliant soon, Moriarty mentioned. He also hopes that all factories would be fully compliant by the end of 2018, when the Alliance’s five-year programme ends.
Suryalakshmi is one of India's leading polyester and blended yarn manufacturers. It has production facilities across two units. The yarn division has been the value driver for the company over the years. With its focus on producing value-added yarn, the company expects to increase production capacity with a new facility to be set up at Amravati, Maharashtra. The unit will manufacture value-added and fancy yarns such as ring, slub and compact.
Suryalakshmi is the third largest single-site denim fabric manufacturer in India. The company replaced 56 airjet looms with new looms in the last three years corresponding to superior operational speed, value-added products and higher production per loom. Currently, Suryalakshmi has a manufacturing capacity of 40 million meters of denim fabric.
The company produces garments for some of the leading global brands in the world, collaborating from design to finished products. The company produces 1.07 million garments annually. The division has a decent revenue visibility with a healthy order book for the coming year. Among its innovations is an array of unique shades and interesting performance-oriented new fabrics like Cool Max, Dual Core, Bamboo. In addition its new dobby design has been a great success with international customers. With a proven track record, Suryalakshmi is now aiming to be Rs 1,000 crores company in the next few years.
www.suryalakshmi.com/
The International Sourcing Expo will be held from November 16 to 18, 2015, at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Australia. The event has attracted more than 450 exhibitors from India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Fiji, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries, who according to the organisers can gain a foothold in the Australian market.
With a major participation from the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) and the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Indian exhibitors will benefit from a strong support network during the expo. It provides a chance to showcase the latest range from India across apparel, accessories, footwear, fabrics, trims and accessories and home textiles categories to Australian trade buyers who visit the event eyeing sourcing opportunities.
“We have had an outstanding response from exhibitors for this year’s event,” said Julie Holt, Exhibition Director, International Sourcing Expo, adding, “It clearly demonstrates an interest in the Australian market for a professional and established event platform.”
The event includes a comprehensive seminar series which will feature a mix of local industry and international speakers addressing key business issues for local companies to both establish and enhance their sourcing partnerships.
www.internationalsourcingexpo
Sutlej Textiles and Industries (STIL), a leading manufacturer of value-added dyed yarns and home textiles reported revenue of Rs 463.31 crores and profit of Rs 29.78 crores for the first quarter of 2015/16. With the company’s new capacities for producing value-added cotton mélange and cotton blended dyed yarn added last year, functioning in full swing and the work on expanding its capacities at the Bhawani Mandi commencing along with acquisition of Birla Textile Mills (BTM) in progress, Sutlej expects capacity expansion efforts to help its growth in future.
STIL is also expanding operations in the home textiles division at one of the company’s units in Damanganga Home Textiles. On completion, the annual capacity will increase to 9.6 million metres from 2.5 million metres. Sutlej also invested around Rs 17 crores in the first quarter of FY16 towards technology upgradation and debottlenecking, which is further expected to improve efficiencies and plant utilization. The company plans to invest an additional Rs 79 crores for the purpose during the year.
An ISO 9001: 2008 certified company, STIL is one of India’s largest spun-dyed yarn manufacturers and produces value-added yarns such as cotton mélange yarn, modal yarn, tencel yarn, bamboo yarn and linen blended yarn, among others. STIL exports to over 60 countries including emerging economies like Australia, Argentina, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Chile, Cuba, Egypt, France and Germany.
www.sutlejtextiles.com
The Yarn Fabric and Accessories trade show will take place in New Delhi, from December 14 to 17, 2015. The aim is to meet the needs of rapidly evolving and expanding yarn and fabric market in the Asian sub continent. The event will enable stakeholders in the textile and apparel industry to converge on a single platform for networking, exchange of ideas, sharing of current experiences, showcasing the latest innovations and products and developing a vision for the future.
The show is the only one of its kind in South Asia, conceived to cover the entire textile value chain. Among the exhibits are natural and manmade fibers, yarns, fabrics, fine yarn-dyed shirting, polyester-wool and polyester-viscose, linen, dress materials, denim, cotton twills and drills, trimmings and embellishments, buttons, buckles, studs, eyelets, lining and interlining, labels, tags, barcodes, badges.
Visitors will comprise apparel manufacturers, exporters, buying houses, retail chains, apparel brands, wholesalers, importers, fashion designers and merchandisers, design studios and institutes, and trade body representatives. More than 250 companies are expected to participate, including some from abroad, from various supply chain segments like fiber, yarn, fabric, dye-stuff and chemicals, trims and embellishments, packaging and display.
The show is planned by Vision Communications, the monthly magazine Attire World and Accessories Guide.
www.yfatradeshow.com/
Elaborating on their plans, K B Prasad, VP-Textile Engineering, Garment & Home Textile Machinery, ATE Enterprises says, “We started supplying technological support to the sewing industry players. Lingerie is the next category we are moving to since it has a lot of scope for automation. For now, they buy machines from China and other countries but face problems with after sales support. We will address this issue.
Offering automation solutions to garment makers
Mumbai-based ATE has been focused on garment industry offering technological solutions by partnering with international machinery makers. Today, it has become a trusted machinery supplier to big manufacturers in the country. “We think big. People trust us when they buy machines. We take care of their spare part needs and after sales,” explains Prasad. At the recent Galleria Intima fair in Delhi, ATE represented several machinery groups such as Juki, Morgan providing cut to pat machines for intimate wear. “We have big customers like Rupa and Amul. One challenge is that unlike other garment segments this segment is yet to accept automation in a big way and we need to break this resistance. Undergarments are still considered a matter of a few overlocks but there are a variety of fabrics to be handled like spandex, elastic material, where simple sew won’t work,” explains Prasad.
Juki machines supplied by ATE are equipped with pullers to handle elasticity and synchronise the sewing part. This eliminates puckering and unevenness. ATE also displayed machines from H&H, Hong Kong that allows an operator to handle two tasks at a time. Talking about its USP, Prasad says, “This can increase the operator’s efficiency and productivity, while he could get more wages. Buyers are ready to invest in such machineries but are hesitant about hiring more workers. So these machines can solve this issue.”
ATE added hot air technology or thermo bonding technology. “We are giving stitchless technology. It’s bonding with a tape where no hemming is needed. It’s applicable to inner wear and outer wear. China has been using this technology for years. It has just come to India. Players like Gokuldas and Arvind are using these machines. Arvind’s stitchless shirts were made on our machines. We can make swim wear, sportswear on these machines and they are ideal for waterproof material,” Prasad adds.
Another brand under its fold is Turkey’s Inmac owned by the Intex group. Intex sells machines all over the world. In India, Intex has carried out around five successful projects with Inmac. “Sports Garments, White House, Ori Jeans, Wonder Blues have bought Inmac machines from us. Ori manufactures for Diesel brand. Another name is Zodiac. They repeatedly buy our machines for garment dyeing, their shirts are dyed on our machines. Now we are moving ahead in terms of knits dyeing. We see a big market in east India for this. Next we will move into Ludhiana and Tirupur,” informs Prasad.
www.ateindia.com
