FW
Sangam India has bagged export orders for denim and polyester viscose fabrics worth Rs 35 crores. The new orders are from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Latin America and Afghanistan. These orders are to be executed in the next four months. The group is a forerunner in manufacturing ready to stitch fabric with an annual capacity to produce 30 million meters of fabric and 40 million meters of denim.
Sangam, which began operations in 1984, has more than 2, 00,000 spindles and 3,000 rotors for producing polyester viscose dyed yarn, cotton and open end yarn. The contribution of exports in the denim business of Sangam has grown from five per cent to 30 per cent in the last 18 months.
The group is the largest producer of polyester viscose dyed yarn in Asia at a single location. The company's pending order book position stands at Rs 238.22 crores, of which Rs 125.60 crores are exports. The company is targeting an export revenue of Rs 450 crores in the current financial year. The seamless garment manufacturing facility has 36 seamless knitting machines with the capacity to produce 3.6 million pieces per annum. With over 10,000 employees, Sangam has diversified into infrastructure, power and steel.
Raymond has clocked in a turnover of Rs. 2,673 crores during the first half of the current financial year, which is a nine per cent growth over the same period last year. Textile segment sales for the second quarter ended September 30, 2016, grew by 12 per cent to Rs 779 crores. Suiting fabric grew by 10 per cent and B2C shirting fabric grew by 23 per cent during the same period. Apparel segment sales for the quarter increased by 18 per cent to Rs. 383 crores on the back of sustained investments in brands.
Garmenting segment sales increased by 18 per cent to Rs 186 crores during the second quarter. The luxury cotton shirting fabric business grew by 14 per cent to Rs 148 crores during the same period. The group will continue to focus on its core areas of brand building, enhancing customer experience, retaining network expansion and operational efficiency.
Raymond registered a good top line and bottom line growth. It remains confident about the long term demand and the strategic direction of its business. The Raymond Group was incorporated in 1925 and within a few years transformed from being an Indian textile major to being a global conglomerate.
Neither re-shoring nor back-shoring will bring back many jobs that were lost via off-shoring with apparel production being still dominated by globalization, opines International Apparel Federation (IAF) president Han Bekke. He was speaking at the Sewn Products Equipment & Suppliers of the America (SPESA) Executive Conference in San Antonio (Texas-USA) recently where many apparel machinery suppliers had converged. Pressure for cheaper prices still persists in abundance, Bekke added. He pointed at the dominance of big players in the fashion market who have made globalisation more accessible via better IT systems and processes in their supply chain. Most of the apparel production takes place in Asia, Middle and South America and Turkey, he maintained.
Nevertheless Bekke forsees a future for local manufacturing given the innumerous challenges the fashion sector is facing. The race to the bottom in terms of prices will not help companies to improve their profitability on a long term. Consumer behaviour is changing in a climate of disruptive economical activities. Sustainability (social compliance and environmental compliance) is leading to a growing demand if not pressure for transparency, traceability and accountability.
The fashion system has to reinvent itself, Bekke observed. Speed to market and mass customization form a growing business case for manufacturing closer to the market, he added. New technologies like 3D manufacturing and printing, robotisation and digitalisation could create new high-skilled jobs but less than the jobs that were lost via off-shoring.
Bangladeshi entrepreneurs can enrich their technical knowhow on apparel products and attract global buyers through participating in expositions across the world says Michael Scherpe, President and CEO of Messe Frankfurt France. Participation in international exhibitions is very important for manufacturers to attract buyers. Entrepreneurs can exchange views and knowledge that would help them to improve quality of products and establish a network with buyers. And Paris, the center of fashion, is one of the best places for companies to learn how to improve their overall presentation.
Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter. Messe Frankfurt Paris holds Texworld and Apparel Fair twice a year, which are important events for apparel, fashion and fabric sector exhibitors. Fairs within Bangladesh project the quality of exports to visitors from home and abroad. Local producers in the remote areas of rural Bangladesh who do not have the financial strength to participate in international trade fairs have the opportunity to display their products to buyers from abroad at such fairs. On the other hand, overseas participants have the opportunity to display their products to consumers of Bangladesh, where the domestic market for consumer goods is expanding.
Besides foreign participants have the opportunity to display their state-of-the-art technology to local producers and exporters.
The gone by week saw yet another circular economic initiative taking shape in the apparel industry. Firstly, the social enterprise Circle Economy being granted €250,000 ($276,000) by the C&A Foundation. On its part, Circle Economy will use the funding to advance its Circle Textiles program with a mission to close the loop for textiles and create a zero-waste industry.
Thanking C&A Foundation for its generous grant, Gwen Cunningham, lead circle textiles at Circle Economy said by this they would be able to push the ambitious program to the next level and take the bold steps necessary to scale our zero waste mission. His company would not only plan to build on the success and expertise of the Circle Textiles Program but also develop new tools for the industry that are critical in engaging companies in closed-loop strategies.
With a focus on end-of-life and systems re-design, the program aims to achieve a zero-waste industry by developing and establishing a commercial and scalable model for closing the loop on post-industrial, pre-consumer and post-consumer textiles. Meanwhile, many brands are adopting their own closed-loop strategies for textiles. Last week, Volcom joined the likes of Outerknown,Speedo USA and Levi Strauss when it announced the release of its first collection of women’s swimwear featuring recycled materials, for spring ’17.
The Simply Solid Swim Collection is composed of 78 per cent Econyl - the regenerated yarn from Italian sustainable textile developer Aquafil that is upcycled from recycling fishing nets and other discarded nylons. The process ensures no loss of material quality and the end product is also 100 percent recyclable.
Not far is active wear brand Yoga Democracy that has announced its ‘Eco-tech Fabric’ also made from Econyl yarn. The company’s sublimation process, hand dying the polyester using zero-water and a low-energy process, additionally contributes to closing the loop with its yoga apparel.
Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen has urged garment workers in the country to improve their productivity and see that factories do not close shop and move to countries such as Laos, Bangladesh and Myanmar, all of which have lower minimum wages. He was speaking at a graduation ceremony at the National Technical Training Institute where he also pointed out relatively rapid gains in the minimum wage for Cambodia’s garment workers which were recently set at $153 a month for the coming year.
Naming the countries that were taking away the factories from Cambodia are Myanmar that has a minimum wage of $60 to $80; Laos, that has a minimum wage of $100 and Bangladesh that also has a minimum wage of $100, he said. Lead ASEAN analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, Miguel Chanco agreed that countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh were indeed presenting a real threat to Cambodia’s garment industry, primarily because in Cambodia it is very expensive to hire workers. The steep increases seen in the minimum wage of Cambodia’s garment industry since 2013 means that it now costs twice as much to hire someone in Cambodia when compared with labour costs in Myanmar and Bangladesh, he remarked in an email.
Deputy Secretary-general of Garment Manufacturers Association in Kaing Manika said it was impossible to deny the threat posed by Myanmar and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers said that the wage issue was not to blame for closing down of the factories. Here he pointed out to a rather long-standing complaint about bribery, infrastructure woes and non-competitive electricity prices.
The British Fashion Council (BFC) has announced photographer Bruce Weber will receive the Isabella Blow award for Fashion Creator at The Fashion Awards 2016 to be held in partnership with Swarovski. He will be honoured at this year’s ceremony on December 5 at the Royal Albert Hall for his incredible creative achievements within the global fashion industry.
Weber’s iconic photography first graced the pages of GQ Magazine in the ’70’s after which he rose to prominence with the Calvin Klein campaign featuring Tom Hintnaus in Greece. Weber’s signature stripped-back black and white photography captured the spirit of the moment and he has endured as one of the most iconic and celebrated photographers of his age.
Weber’s work on campaigns for the likes of Pirelli, Ralph Lauren and Versace and for magazines such as Elle, Interview, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair and Multiple Vogues has resulted in some of the most creative and iconoclastic fashion imagery to date. His multiple books have served to spotlight how influential his insight into the contemporary condition is
Arvind’s consolidated revenue grew 19 per cent for the quarter ended September 30, 2016. Consolidated EBIDTA was up two per cent against the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit after tax before exceptional items grew by 20 per cent. Profit after tax after exceptional items was Rs 72 crores.
The group’s textile business recorded nine per cent revenue growth. The brands business grew by 33 per cent. Arvind’s brand portfolio is among the strongest in India and has many power brands that have grown at a phenomenal pace. The turnover was Rs 2,300 crores for 2015-16 and is one of the fastest growing businesses in the country with a CAGR of 25 per cent for the past three years. The portfolio includes global marquee brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, US Polo Assn., Ed Hardy, Hanes, Arrow, Gant and Nautica, among others.
The company is confident of continuing the growth momentum and taking the business from over Rs 3,200 crores this year to Rs 9,000 crores by 2022. Meanwhile Arvind will dilute 10 per cent stake in its brand business arm and in doing so raise about Rs 740 crores. The entire stake will be picked up by Multiples, a private equity firm.
To boost textile exports from the country, the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to announce the ‘Textile Package’ for exporters without further delay. They say, this could revive the closed capacity, create jobs and attract investment in the country.
Sr Vice Chairman, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), Zahid Mazhar said that the PM should take ownership for exports and announce the much awaited textile package without any further delay or it will be too late and too little because Pakistan is rapidly losing customers globally due to high cost of doing business and poor competitiveness as compared to regional competitors. To prove his point, he claimed total exports had fallen from $25 billion in fiscal year ended 2013 to $20 billion in fiscal year ended 2016.
Mazhar said delay in proposed incentive package has been rapidly eroding the exports of textile sector. In support of his argument he said textile exports for September 2016 declined 12.1 per cent as compared to previous year. Textile exports from July 2015 to June 2016 went down 7.5 per cent over the corresponding period of 2014-15.
He further said the industry was facing a crisis because of high cost of doing business being 10 per cent higher than other regional competitors, high cost and shortage of raw materials and liquidity constraints. Duties/taxes/surcharges on exports in Pakistan are more than 5 per cent.
Traders in the United Kingdom have requested their government to take immediate action on Brexit as they say that there was a danger of it going out of control and paralysing the British industry. That would deal a devastating blow to the economy. They have also asked ministers to protect thousands of European employees fearing for their future in a Britain minus the European Union.
The alarm was raised soon after a High Court ruling that said Theresa May cannot trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty without first consulting the Parliament. Businesses have putt decisions pertaining to investment on hold and delayed expansion plans and keeping on hold hiring new staff in response to the decision. Business groups are of the feel that ministers have to listen to their concerns. Privately, there are also people who feel that there is growing frustration that lines of communication have either been interrupted or severed by the turmoil created by the result of the EU referendum.
Union leaders, meanwhile, have started demanding reassurances on the issue of worker’s rights. They are of hope that working people need to know that the Prime Minister’s promise to protect their rights will be delivered in the Brexit agreement. They also feel that a commitment to comply with existing and future EU workers’ rights must be at the heart of any transitional agreement and of any future UK-EU trade treaty. This, they feel will be good for both workers and business. By committing to match EU workers’ rights, the British will have a stronger negotiating position for British businesses keeping access to the single market.
