Indorama Ventures (IVL), a global chemical producer, has completed the acquisition of Avgol Industries, a leading global manufacturer of nonwoven hygiene fabrics. The acquisition is well aligned with IVL’s strategy of pursuing accretive growth opportunities in the high value-added hygiene segment.

It offers extensive value creation and synergy within Indorama Ventures, including growth opportunities in adjacent segments through the strong innovation pipeline. The addition of Avgol reinforces IVL’s existing leading position in this segment. IVL is now able to offer a full suite of personal hygiene-oriented nonwoven products that best serve customer needs.

Avgol offers a comprehensive range of nonwoven fabrics and has broad expertise in developing and manufacturing customised solutions to address consumer requirements. It has six production sites globally in Israel, the US, Russia, China and India, with a combined production capacity of 203,000 tonnes/annum, and has around 900 employees worldwide.

HanesBrands, a leading global marketer of everyday basic apparel, has appointed consumer products industry veteran Geralyn R. Breig to the company’s Board of Directors. With an accomplished 35-year CPG career in executive, marketing and omnichannel business development roles, Brieg is the founder and chief executive officer of Anytown USA, an e-commerce marketplace that sells certified American-made consumer products.

Prior to launching AnytownUSA, Breig held leadership positions with C & J Clark as President, Clarks, Americas; President of Avon North America and General Manager of Avon USA; President of Godiva Chocolatier International among others. She has also held marketing and brand management positions with Kraft Foods., General Foods Corporation and Procter & Gamble.

Breig also serves on the board of directors of 1-800-Flowers.com., and Welch Foods. She has a BSc degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

India ITME Society will organise GTTES 2019, an exclusive show to display the strengths and opportunities in global textile industry, with special focus on industry segments from January 18-20, 2019 in Mumbai. The ITME Society Team organized a series of successful road shows in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem and Erode, the five best known textile belts of South India. The aim of the roadshow was to provide a platform for investment and brand promotion and for the industry leaders to interact with the SMEs providing new business and extensive market opportunities in this flourishing industry.

GTTES aims to assimilate and disseminate more knowledge and power for industry through the futuristic technology topics at the conference sessions by Society of Dyers & Colorists International India on ‘Educating the Technology Innovations in Textile Coloration’ & ‘International Conference on Nonwoven Technical Textiles’ by Indian Technical Textiles Association.

GTTES 2019 has reiterated its position not only in the South, but also amongst India’s regional Textile hubs Bhiwandi, Ichalkaranji, Faridabad, Vapi, Surat, Umargaon, Panipat, etc as a key sourcing platform for the textile business. The mega event is a growth catalyst and optimum business platform with more business leads new customers offering the best sourcing solution to India’s surging demand for textile industry in India and across the globe.

Burberry has come under fire for burning unsold clothing and beauty products worth millions in order to protect its brand and maintain exclusivity. Many on social media have criticized the company for wastefully destroying clothing instead of putting it on sale or donating it to charitable causes. The British brand was advised not to waste perfectly good clothes.

The fashion industry is in the center of an environmental crisis and is said to cause ten per cent of global carbon emissions. However, Burberry says the energy that was released from burning the clothing was captured, making it environmentally friendly. The brand says it has careful processes in place to minimize the amount of excess stock it produces and that on occasions, when disposal of products is necessary, it is done in a responsible manner and that Burberry continues to seek ways to reduce and revalue waste.

Designer Riccardo Tisci was recently appointed the new chief creative officer of the brand, and will debut his first runway collection for Burberry during September's London Fashion Week. Over the past 16 years, Burberry has enjoyed strong growth and evolved into one of the most valuable luxury brands in the world.

Pure London was held from July 22 to 24. The event welcomed thousands of buyers and influencers, new sectors and new brands, inspiring speakers and leading change-makers mulling the future and how to make it sustainable, circular and inclusive top of the agenda. Topics included diversity, body shape, ethics and environmental issues. One was on how brands can be more representative of society and the role they play in changing people’s perspectives on body image and the beauty standard.

A huge increase in brands with an ethical standpoint and environmentally-made collections exhibited this season as part of the new Pure Conscious section, demonstrating the pace of growth and interest in this sector as it drives to become the norm. Future trends by WGSN were brought to life on the catwalk with a special appearance from Graduate Fashion Week winners and graduates. Pure London invited everyone to adopt one of five simple pledges: Get Dirty, Turn It Down, Pass It On, Ethicool, and Actually I Can to advance the UN’s Global Goal 12 for responsible consumption and production.

Pure London is the UK’s leading trade fashion buying event, representing women’s wear, men’s wear, footwear, accessories and young fashion. The show offers buyers from department stores, etailers and mail order the opportunity to discover collections launching for the season ahead.

Australian brand Toorallie, is emerging as one of the bright stars of Australia's wool industry and it is the younger consumers who are propelling its growth. Run by two identical twins Simon and Steve Smith, Toorallie is well aware of this emerging market.

The brand flourished for a decade — making colorful, bulky knit jumpers and classical knitwear. But by 2004, cheap Chinese clothes were flooding the Australian market. Sales of woollen clothing had stagnated. Fashion, ever fickle, had moved on. The business collapsed under a mountain of debt. But Steve and Simon Smith had devoted their prime years to the brand and never considered walking away.

The brothers brokered a business partnership with Peter Small, a veteran woolgrower who had spent decades processing Australian wool into fine yarn. Small became a co-owner with two other silent partners and the re-born Toorallie has gradually gone from strength to strength.

The company now supplies more than 250 retail outlets in Australian and New Zealand markets. All its fleeces are sourced from Pooginook, a famed wool growing property near Jerilderie in southern New South Wales. The Smith brothers are excited about the growth prospects for Merino clothing, domestically and in emerging markets such as the Asian middle class.

A recent research from ‘YouGov Omnibu’ indicates that 46 percent of U.S. consumers prefer comfort over style and cost when buying a pair of jeans. Around 56 percent of Americans have at least one pair of jeans that no longer fit. While one in 10 consumers reported having just one pair of non-fitting jeans in their closet, while 17 percent reported owning two pairs that don’t fit.

Meanwhile, 8 percent said they have six or more pairs of jeans in their closet that don’t fit them. According to the report, around 46 per cent of women, despite services like personal shopping and fit guides and wider availability to brands with inclusive sizing, do not know their size when they step into a store. As against this, only 24 percent of the men do not know their sizes.

Of the women surveyed, 63 percent are not confident about finding the right size when shopping at an online retailer for the first time, compared to 43 percent of men. Around 81 percent of Americans are “very” or “somewhat” confident that they will know the clothing size that will fit them best from somewhere they’ve shopped before.

The special package for India’s textile and garment sector, launched in June 2016 and hailed by many as a potent tool for creation of decent jobs, has met with limited success.
Just .265 million workers have till date enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRPY) for the textile-garment sector. And not all of these are new employments either.

Just 788 units have availed themselves of the benefit so far.

The scheme’s objective was very ambitious: to achieve a cumulative increase of 30 billion dollars in export of textiles and garments and Rs 74,000 crores ($US 10.79 billion) of investments in the employment-intensive sector over three years. The package for the sector included making EPF optional for employees earning less than Rs 15,000 ( $US 219) per month.

While the PMPRPY for the textile sector has had only some success, the PMRPY, aimed at accelerating job creation in the formal sector, has done relatively better as 75,753 units have availed themselves of the benefits of the scheme and the number of beneficiaries (workers) stood at 608.1 million.

Under the scheme launched in August 2016, the government is obliged to pay the entire employee pension scheme (EPS) component of the employer’s EPF contribution for workers with a salary up to Rs 15,000 ( $US 219) per month for the first three years of their employment.

Mexican and Canadian officials are optimistic of clinching the NAFTA trade deal with the U.S. in the next several months even amid sticking points on car production, an automatic expiration clause and President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on foreign vehicles.

The nations will try to work an agreement before U.S. mid-term elections in early November. Some of these negotiations will result in meetings between the two nations. While the U.S. has expressed a preference for bilateral deals, Mexico and Canada remain committed to a trilateral agreement.

Many of Trump’s senior economic advisers expect him to impose a 25 percent tariff on about $200 billion in foreign-made automobiles later this year. Canada has termed this as absurd and expressed its confidence that US will follow common sense and refrain from imposing these tariffs.

Archroma has a unique combination of technologies for denim effects and colors, from fiber to finish, from the authentic roots of indigo to the most innovative and eco-advanced solutions.

Denisol is a newly developed pre-reduced liquid indigo solution. It is compliant with major official eco-standards and requirements from retailers, brands and fashion leading companies and helps to produce fabrics suitable for current eco-labeling such as bluesign and GOTS. Denisol is a non-toxic alternative to dyes that are used for the iconic and traditional indigo blue that consumers associate with denim and jeans.

Archroma is a global leader in color and specialty chemicals. Its coatings and washing solutions are aimed at bringing denim creativity to a whole new dimension. The company’s advanced denim dyeing technology allows savings of up to 92 per cent in water, 87 per cent in cotton waste and 30 per cent in energy compared to a conventional denim dyeing process. The technology has been adopted by brands like Patagonia.

Diresul RDT Ocean Blues is a collection of vibrant, ocean-themed bright sulfur blue dyes. These best-in-class dyes and their auxiliaries bring out the best of indigo, improve workability, dyeing consistency and process safety.

Archroma’s dye and chemical specialties portfolio allows the creation of exciting colors and effects.