Vardhman Textiles proposes to invest about Rs 1,400 crores in the next two years as capex, to be segregated equally between yarn and fabric. The investment would be strategically used to add approximately one lakh spindles. The company is also expanding its total fabric capacity from the current 140 million meters a year to 180 million meters.

Vardhman, which began operations in 1965, is engaged in the business of manufacturing yarn, fabric, acrylic fiber, garments, sewing threads and alloy steel. The group has over the years developed as a business conglomerate with a presence in India and in 75 countries across the globe. It is one of India’s largest textile manufacturers with a substantial market share.

Vardhman invested around Rs 300 crores in fiscal ’18 on modernization of its assets and enhancement of capacity. This is expected to widen the company product offerings in the yarn dyed segment and also help service its clients better. The company is a one-stop shop for all kinds of spun yarn offering a variety of contemporary blends and shades. Yarn constitutes the largest business at Vardhman. The company also manufactures organic cotton, melange, core spun yarns, ultra yarns, gassed mercerised, superfine yarns, slub and cellulose yarns and fancy yarns for hand knitting.

Timberland has recently hired a new global creative director, British designer Christopher Raeburn. The US brand took advantage of the launch of its collaboration with Raeburn - a ready-to-wear apparel line for this autumn - to announce the appointment.

Working with Raeburn, Timberland wants to push its Corporate Social Responsibility strategy further, adopting a “holistic approach” which will encompass all product categories, as well as marketing and retail initiatives. The company is keen to develop more eco-responsible sourcing and come across as a more inclusive brand, with an emphasis on shared values.. The first full Timberland collection designed by Raeburn will be launched for the Autumn/Winter 2020.

Raeburn, 36, set up his fashion design studio in 2009. Since then, he has been engaged in favour of ethical, sustainable fashion, and his design ethos encompasses three key pillars – Remade, Reduced, Recycled. Raeburn shows his collections in London, and previously collaborated with Victorinox in 2010 and Moncler in 2012.

The first Christopher Raeburn x Timberland capsule collection was presented at the London Fashion Week at the start of 2018, and has been available since last Saturday in Timberland stores and on the US brand’s e-shop.

The Mumbai unit of Textile Association (India) will organise an international conference on 'Textile 4.0' on February 7, 2019. The theme will be: “Roadmap for Application of Industry 4.0 in Indian Textile Manufacturing”. This edition of Textile 4.0 will focus on implementation and application of the Industry 4.0 in Indian textile manufacturing. Textile production is a long and complex manufacturing process, starting from the fiber as a raw material and taking it through spinning, weaving or knitting and finishing as final finished products which can be apparel fabrics or home textiles or technical textiles. This needs a deep and prudent understanding to evaluate techo-commercial implications to make a winning case of using this new technological wave to be future ready.

This conference will attract mill owners, top textile professionals, experts and textile technologists from India and across the globe. This high profile conference will be attended by 500 quality participants where they will get the rare opportunity to listen to such high quality experts.

The Clothing and Textile Competitiveness Program in South Africa will receive its share of the R15.9-billion allocated to incentives and the Expanded Public Works Program. To augment this process, government will repriortise clothing and textiles production incentive from special economic zones. Moreover, government will work with the Land Bank to accelerate land reform and maintain the productive use of transferred land.

Under the Land Reform Program, government will provide 30-year leases, which will enable the Land Bank to extend loans to emerging farmers. Similarly, the Land Bank will use a combination of loans and grants to increase production through the Black Producers Commercialisation Program. Funding from the comprehensive agricultural support programme grant will be reprioritised to produce foot-and-mouth disease vaccines. Government is also allocating funds for the South African Isotope facility at iThemba Labs to aid in research. Meanwhile, the Small Business and Innovation Fund will help entrepreneurs and small businesses navigate the pre-startup phase and provide support as they scale up their enterprises.

Innovate Textile & Apparel will be held in Amsterdam, November 6 to 8, 2018. This is a new three-day, multi-stream business and technology conference, designed to shed light on the character and progress of digitalisation in the textile value chain, and its implications for business strategy.

Innovate Textile & Apparel will also introduce product developers to the latest smart materials. It includes the Textile 4.0 Conference, Textile Business Futures and Re:Think Materials. The three complementary conferences, each exploring a different theme with innovation at its heart, will deliver vital insights into the most important areas of business and product strategy in textiles and apparel.

Textile 4.0 Conference, November 6 to 7, will explore emerging digital business models and introduce the latest application opportunities in smart factory development, including robotics, the Industrial Internet of Things and virtual or augmented reality. The conference's first day will examine 4.0 themes, including robotics, augmented reality and harnessing big data. Textile Business Futures, November 8, will examine digital business strategy, risk management, return on investment, leadership and culture change.

Re:Think Materials, November 7 to 8, will provide expert technical insights for product developers, including market opportunities in connected textiles, conductive fiber and yarn, textiles for energy harvesting and storage and printed textile electronics.

Pakistan has imposed a regulatory duty on the import of various textile items. The aim is to strengthen the textile industry. A 50 per cent duty has been imposed on apparel and clothing accessories, leather or composition leather. Footwear with outer soles of leather or composition leather and uppers of textile materials will be charged 40 per cent.

Further, there is a 10 per cent tax on woven fabrics of cotton containing 85 per cent or more by weight of cotton, mixed mainly or solely with manmade fibers and other woven fabrics of cotton, eight per cent on woven fabrics of synthetic filament yarn and artificial filament yarn.

Import of cotton yarn (other than sewing thread), woven fabrics of polyesters, artificial staple fibers and synthetic staple fibers are charged at five per cent. A two per cent regulatory duty has been imposed on yarns from synthetic staple fibers, artificial staple fibers and manmade staple fibers.

For Pakistan revival of idle capacity in the textile industry would be a top priority. A level playing field would be provided to the textile industry in order to boost exports. Obstacles to the import of raw materials, both cotton and manmade fiber, would be removed.

Textile units in Nepal will shut down operations from November 1, 2018. They say their concerns are not being addressed. Textile manufacturers are especially against the cancellation of the Value Added Tax (VAT) refund system in textiles, which came into effect from this fiscal. They say the decision has further deteriorated the competitiveness of Nepali textiles in the domestic as well as international markets.

Till the last fiscal textile manufacturers had been enjoying a 70 per cent VAT refund. They say, the government should either review its decision regarding the cancellation of VAT rebate on textiles or pay back the equivalent amount to textile manufacturers through any other means.

Similarly, textile manufacturers have also urged the government to curb the illegal imports of foreign textile products. The textile sector in Nepal includes manufacturing of textile, yarn, jute, woolen carpets, garments, pashmina and cotton terry towels. These sectors are major manufacturing activities and are also major export products of the country. Textile and yarn are more important for the local domestic market.

Nepal’s textile sector, which is mostly cotton and synthetic based, is passing through a tough phase. A large number of textile factories in Nepal have either closed down or are on the verge of closure due to labor unrest, high taxes, unclear government policies etc.

Levi’s has been ranked as the world’s top ranked apparel brand in a report which assesses leading global brands on their green supply chain practices in Asia. The next best placed apparel brands are C&A, followed by Nike, both of which are which major risers in the list. Primark, H&M, Inditex and Target are all also in the top ten in the report, which indicates that the apparel industry is pressing suppliers in Asia harder than ever on textile pollution information disclosure.

The brands are rated in the fifth version of the Green Supply Chain CITI (Corporate Information Transparency Index) evaluation report, published by Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE). The report aims to use environmental big data to generate solutions to help leading multinational and local brands develop green procurement on a greater scale. In all, 306 brands were ranked, 76 in the textile and apparel sectors.

The latest report shows a huge spike in the number of apparel brands which are using the IPE’s database to screen their Chinese suppliers for environmental compliance and push them to disclose information.

The report also shows that 10 apparel retailers have now joined the IPE Green Supply Chain Map, the only tool in the world to openly link leading multinational corporations to their suppliers’ environmental performance. These ten brands include Adidas, Esprit, Gap, Inditex, Levi’s, New Balance, Nike, Puma, Target and Tesco.

To be held from January 8 to 11, 2019 the next edition of Heimtextil will bring together all participating textiles editeurs and optimally integrate them into the product offer for interior designers and retailers. Around 40 international fabric suppliers will present their collections for the upcoming season in the newly designed hall 8.0. The event will include presentations by: Alhambra/Tormes Design and Pepa Pastor (both Spain), CTA, Decobel and Foresti Home Collection Group (all Italy), Damaceno & Antunes (Portugal), Saum & Viebahn (Germany) and N.V. Wind (Belgium).

The Style Library will be the ideal meeting place for all eight German brands, Zoffany, Harlequin, Sanderson, Morris & Co, Anthology, Scion, Clarke & Clarke and Studio G DecoTeam will also get a new area in hall 8.0.

Besides showcasing current design trends, DecoTeam will also offer a broad-ranging event programme: lectures, workshops and talks with well-known guests will provide first-rate information and fantastic entertainment.

With the advent of technology and to keep up with growing demand, Kalamkari — the hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile art, is being replaced by mechanised production where chemical dyes and screen-printing are used. Instead of designing on the cloth using a pen, the mechanised technique involves creating digital prints and then making large stencils.

The reason for the shift to mechanised way of producing cotton textile is because crafting the material by hand takes a longer time. The fabric has to be first soaked in buffalo milk and cow dung before being washed. The colors used on the fabric are also natural and it takes four or five days to produce one original hand block-printed kalamkari durrie or saree. Now, its mechanised counterpart does not use natural colours, obviously to cut costs.

The tedious process in the natural hand block method also reflects in its cost. While a meter of hand block-printed Kalamkari fabric would cost Rs 150 to Rs 170, it would cost around Rs 80 for the screen-printed variety.