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Apparel exporters in Bangladesh want time to implement the new wage structure. They say if they are not given cash incentives many entrepreneurs would be ruined in implementing the new wages and workers would be jobless. They have asked for a 20 per cent cash incentive.
In the 2019 financial year, the government cut source tax on export earnings twice in export-oriented sectors, including the apparel sector, and lowered the source tax on expert proceeds to 0.25 per cent from one per cent for the financial year.
The apparel sector would be the key beneficiary of the tax cut as the sector alone accounts for 83 per cent of the total exports of the country. Apparel exporters want a four per cent cash incentive on exports to new markets. Export-oriented industries also enjoy tax exemption on the import of raw materials in the 2016-2017 financial year under the bonded warehouse facility. They also avail of duty cuts against the import of inputs such as fabrics, yarn and accessories.
Other than the cash incentive, cuts in source tax and bonded warehouse facility, the apparel sector enjoys a reduced rate of corporate tax and a waiver on value added tax on utilities.
International Fashion Showcase (IFS) has selected 16 designers from across the globe who will showcase a series of compelling installations to represent their respective country. The designers will explore politics, sustainability, identity and heritage and show their latest designs in immersive environments.
The countries represented are Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, Georgia, Italy, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Netherlands, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Uruguay and Vietnam.
The collections presented will offer a balanced mix of women’s wear and menswear exploring topical but universally shared issues and present new ideas and solutions that are shaping fashion globally. These designers will be supported through a bespoke online program, which will cover all aspects of business development from branding to sales and production to sustainability. This tailored cultural residency and business skills training will give the emerging designers the professional support that is often difficult to access, provided by some of the UK’s leading fashion and creative experts.
International Fashion Showcase nurtures and presents work from the best up-and-coming fashion talent from around the world. IFS will be held a as part of London Fashion Week, February 15 to 19, 2019. The exhibition is a key part of London Fashion Week, giving both the public and industry professionals the opportunity to discover emerging fashion from Africa, North and South America, Asia and Europe and to celebrate its global relevance.
Archroma and Carlin will share a booth at Premiere Vision Paris, February 12 to 14, 2019. This will allow visitors to enjoy a full consultation from color trends to color inspiration to color implementation from the first mood board all the way into production.
Closing the loop from forecast to insight, visitors at the booth will also have the opportunity to check which colors are currently trending in the textile industry, with Archroma’s booklet, which compiles the top 10 selling colors of Color Atlas references that are currently being selected and in-use. Visitors at the booth will also be able to explore Carlin’s take on naturality and ethics.
The Carlin-Archroma collaboration is unique in that it allows the color dreams of designers and stylists to come to life uncompromised into the collection they bring to the shops. Archroma is a global leader in color and specialty chemicals. Carlin, based France, is known for its trend-oriented expertise from brand strategy and collection design to color creation and trend forecasting. Carlin serves famous brands in the fashion, cosmetic and sportswear industry.
Carlin and Archroma have developed the booth on the theme ‘Insolence’ and decided to make it the inspiration of their shared booth, with its bold red, green and blue colors.
"As per The State of Fashion 2019, a survey issued by McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm, India is likely to become a centrepoint for the fashion industry this year as its strengthening manufacturing sector and burgeoning middle class will create a whole new class of consumers.The fastest growing major economy in the world, India is predicted to grow at 8 per cent a year between 2018 and 2022. The middle class will expand by 19.4 per cent a year over the same period, outpacing China, Mexico and Brazil. As a result, India is set to move from being an increasingly important sourcing hub to one of the most attractive consumer markets outside the western world."
As per The State of Fashion 2019, a survey issued by McKinsey & Company, a global management consultancy firm, India is likely to become a centrepoint for the fashion industry this year as its strengthening manufacturing sector and burgeoning middle class will create a whole new class of consumers.
India to grow at 8 per cent, inspires global designers
The fastest growing major economy in the world, India is predicted to grow at 8 per cent a year between 2018 and 2022. The middle class will expand by 19.4 per cent a year over the same period, outpacing China, Mexico and Brazil. As a result, India is set to move from being an increasingly important sourcing hub to one of the most attractive consumer markets outside the western world. As McKinsey’s FashionScope reveals, India’s apparel market will be worth $59.3 billion in 2022, making it the sixth-largest in the world, and comparable to the UK ($65 billion) and Germany ($63 billion).
India continues to inspire Western designers, who pay tribute to the Indian weave which is a unique mix of vivid colors, silks, motifs and silhouettes. International labels like Emilio Pucci, Christian Dior, Missoni and Christian Labotin are mersmerised by the Indian textile production and have reinterpreted India’s exquisite repertoire of imagery.
Domestic market offers multiple benefits
As per the The State of Fashion 2019 report, over 300 international fashion brands are expected to open stores in the country in the next two years. Many of these have plans
to enter new markets while others plan to expand existing operations.
The report says, the Indian market offers great promise despite structural challenges that include inequality, infrastructure and market fragmentation. There are signs of improvement in terms of infrastructure with luxury malls popping up more frequently.
The supply side of the industry is robust and growth of textile and apparel exports is expected to accelerate. The country is endowed with huge stock of raw material such as cotton wool, silk and jute which enable participation in the entire fashion value chain.
Western brands woo Indian designers
And it is a fact that Western fashion brands woo Indian designers. It started to become a trend when in 2011 with Paco Rabanne asking Manish Arora to be the creative director of a chic women’s wear collection based on ancient know-how. Today, there is an extraordinary generation of Indian fashion designers who are pulling those unique inherited techniques into cutting-edge visions of beauty. The Indian fashion scene is vibrant and dynamic.
Given all these considerations, investing in India’s expanding apparel market could be a clever move as a burgeoning middle class is keen to demonstrate an unprecedented “desire” to express their identity through fashion.
US online sales of luxury fashion items are showing significant growth in key segments – footwear, accessories, and apparel. Much of the nearly 50 per cent increase in dollar sales seen in recent years across these segments is attributed to an increase in buyer spending.
Luxury market is evolving, new brands are getting attention, and online retailer platforms are elevating the competitive landscape. The younger, multi-ethnic demographic that is more attracted to purchasing designer products online – even more than the average online accessories, footwear, or apparel buyer – is a major contributor to this evolution.
The biggest spending increase within the online luxury market comes from apparel – growing 17 per cent. While the frequency of online purchases held steady for luxury apparel and fashion accessories both segments saw increases in the amount consumers spent on those purchases. Fashion accessories increased their average online luxury spend per buyer by five per cent.
Nearly half of online luxury fashion dollar sales come from footwear, which has the highest average annual spend per buyer and annual purchase frequency. The average online luxury footwear spend increased four per cent and purchase frequency also increased slightly to 1.6 times per year.
SMART Myanmar and AYA Bank recently signed an MoU in order to facilitate green finance in Myanmar’s garment sector, increasing factories’ access to funding for environmentally sustainable and energy saving improvements. SMART Myanmar is a project implemented by Sequa and operated in collaboration with the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) and the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP). It has been working with garment factories and banks to generate practical solutions to these issues.
The MoU is aimed at identifying and piloting so-called “bankable green projects” within the coming twelve months. This, it is hoped, can inspire further green lending programmes in the years to come. SMART Myanmar has also received EU funding and with the help of Myanmar’s fastest growing bank AYA, is now in prime position to deploy new services to the nation’s garment sector and to quickly scale-up best practice solutions.
Speaking at the National Conclave on Technical Textiles, jointly organised by the Ministry of Textiles and FICCI, in Mumbai Union textiles minister Smriti Zubin Irani said India's technical textiles sector is estimated to reach Rs 2 lakh crore by 2020-21. The government, under the aegis of Ministry of Textiles, has dedicated 207 HSN codes for technical textiles to the nation. This decision can enable the sector to grow at a massive pace in coming years.
Irani said, the technical textiles sector has a huge job-giving potential with every Rs. 1 crore investment generating 70 jobs. This will lead to growth in sectors such as research, education and facilities such as testing labs as well. She further stated that partnerships between agrotech companies and Krishi Vigyan Kendras can be very impactful.
India Ratings has maintained a stable outlook for the textile sector for 2019-20 following strong domestic demand, waning impact of the disruptions due to GST and demonetisation and rising exports aided by a weak rupee. Textile companies are likely to improve cash-flow from operations in FY20, as their working capital would stabilise as challenges related to demonetisation and the GST subside. The sector is likely to continue deleveraging gradually in FY20 in view of strong annual growth generation and some moderation in the debt level. Liquidity of the majority of players in the sector is likely to remain adequate, alongwith an improvement in operational cash generation, backed by steady raw material costs and strong demand from end-user segments.
The domestic and global stock-to-use ratios will remain under pressure during cotton year 2018-19. Global cotton production is likely to decline in cotton year 2018-19 owing to a low acreage and adverse weather conditions in key cotton-growing nations. Meanwhile, India's textile exporters are likely to continue to benefit from improved cost competitiveness due to a weak rupee, which would drive volume growth.
Messe Frankurt has launched four micro-factories at the 2019 edition of Texprocess, Frankfurt/Main, the international trade fair for processing textile and flexible materials held from May 14 to 17, 2019. One of the contemporary show highlights will be ‘Smart Textiles Micro-Factory’, located in the walkway between Halls 4.1 and 5.1 of Frankfurt fairground, the Institute for Textile Technology (ITA) at the RWTH Aachen University, along with partners from industry and research, who will be producing a ‘smart’ pillow which, with the application of integrated LEDs, provides a platform for new ways of interaction. With this demonstration, the partners in the project will present an exemplary, fully connected manufacturing process for a smart textile from design to finished product.
The Smart Textiles Micro-Factory will represent a double premiere: the operational implementation of an on-demand integrated manufacturing process and this a smart, in this conductive sewn end-product. Under the leadership of a team of dedicated engineers for various technologies and along the principals of agile project management the following partners are now developing concept and implementation for the ambitious Microfactory application: Gerber Technology, Korea Institute for Industrial Technology (KITECH), Vetron Typical Europe GmbH (sewing), Wear it GmbH, ZSK Stickmaschine
GTTES 2019 registered a 26 per cent growth in visitors. The visitors spanned a large number countries including: Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Turkey, UK, USA, Taiwan, Morocco, Djibouti, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Senegal etc . Total number of visitors were 32,000, including 1,990 students from 35 institutes & high level delegations from 12 countries
GTTES 2019 created a new opportunities & prospects for various players from textile industry and encouraged students from the textile institute in multiple ways. One such outstanding benefit for students was from Callebaut de Blicquy (CDB), a manufacturing company which gifted an equipment for eco-friendly dyeing process optimisation – OptiLab of DKTE Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji.
Many exhibitors bagged orders and sold machines. One such exhibitor was China’s Ziejiang Boretech Environmental Engineering which concluded a deal worth $1.3 million with Sutlej Textiles. Exhibitor Shreetex Engineers sold its machines to Savitri Textiles.
