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At the Blue Zone International Denim Trade Fair to be held in Munich from August 30 and 31, four leading companies from the textile and clothing supply chain viz Santoni, Unitin, Lenzing and Tonello will launch a stretch indigo denim concept - DEN/IM, I am DENIM that brings new innovation to athleisure-wear. DEN/IM is a revolutionary product: true Denim that goes beyond itself to change the rules of the game. Garments that are seasonless, life-style friendly and can be worn from the studio to the street are the new ‘must-have’ according to leading Italian seamless knitting machine builder Santoni. In addition, Santoni’s Green Label seamless Athleisure is all about comfort, style and performance and so the design, flexibility and styling options that come with seamless technology make Santoni and Indigo Knits ideal partners.
New Santoni machine SM8/EVO4J GG20 has been used for developing a total new look capsule collection that offers body hugging, comfortable, sporty, chic and trendy denim items from head to toe. This product concept further enhances the idea of innovative knit denim as a counter-point to the traditional woven denim fabric. The genuine DNA of denim is maintained with contributions from Lenzing, Unitin and Tonello.
Lenzing too has been thinking ahead and so, it has plans to embed Tencel fibre further into the denim market. Great attention has been given to environmental aspects from the class-leading man made cellulosic fiber in Tencel to the low-impact finishes developed by Tonello, such as laser and ozone.
The sixth edition of the two-day semi-annual Denimsandjeans Bangladesh show will take place at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka from October 5th. The theme for the event is ‘Vintage recall’, denim goes back to its roots. This time, the show has scheduled two seminars by international experts who will share their ideas on different prospects of denim.
After five successful events, the international denim exhibition hopes to live up to the high expectations for its sixth edition. The show provides a platform for global denim buyers who come together to interact and establish the basis for future trade with key suppliers from Bangladesh. Delving into the past has been the trend high in fashion lately and jeans designs are re-adopting the styles of the early 90s: the colour, the slubs, the weave, the looks of the period are back in vogue.
The current production of denim involves state of the art technology in spinning, weaving and finishing, and the industry is pondering over possibilities of incorporating vintage characteristics in the look while retaining the feel of present times through the weave. By 2020, the global market for denim is expected to be over $64 billion out of which 70 per cent would come from Asia. The last show featured an exclusively European-style fashion show, bringing out interesting competition among the students of fashion universities of Bangladesh, giving them the opportunity to showcase their skills to an international audience.
Cramer-Krasselt (C-K), the Chicago-based independent ad agency will be teaming up with the Cotton Council International (CCI) whose goal is to help increase the demand for US cotton for overseas export. CCI announced their decision to hire C-K recently with the stated goal of working with the agency in global brand marketing and communication efforts to promote the export of US cotton fiber, manufactured cotton products and cottonseed.
Karen Seamen, President and COO of Chicago –based Cramer-Krasselt feels the move as an exciting, highly competitive global category and US cotton is outstanding in its quality. Cramer-Krasselt is the second largest independent advertising agency in the U.S.
CCI, the overseas promotion arm of the National Cotton Council of America, has 20 offices in 18 countries and covers more than 50 countries. Through its 'Cotton USA' programme, CCI offers support to customers at each stage of the supply chain, from the cotton farmer and exporter, to the brand and retailer.
According to Bruce Atherley, executive director of CCI, it's an important time in their organization's history to add an expert agency partner to help us communicate the benefits of US cotton to our audiences from a center out approach. Their decision to hire C-K was based on CCI’s confidence in the quality of the team, business orientation, strategic insights and creativity.
The textile minister has given the go-ahead to supersede the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and appoint a government administrator to take over its management. As per the textile secretary Rashmi Verma’s letter to corporate affairs secretary Tapan Ray keeping in view the large scale fraud of government grants by the Council, it has been decided that the government may appoint an ‘Administrator’ to takeover the management of the Council so that its functioning may be streamlined to protect public interest.
Verma requested Ray to examine the possibility of appointing a ‘government administrator’, superseding the existing executive body of the Council as provided in Section 397 to 400 of the Companies Act. Under the Act, a Section 8 company such as AEPC can be ‘superseded’ and a government administrator be appointed only through the Company Law Tribunal under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
According to sources, the Textiles Ministry had received a plethora of complaints against AEPC on issues of corporate governance, mismanagement of funds, misuse of Apparel International Mart and illegal leasing of office space in Delhi to benefit a private firm. While taking cognizance of the transgressions, the ministry started issuing ‘corrective actions’ since June 2015. Reminders were sent but ‘AEPC, despite clear directions from the Ministry under Article 101 (i) has shown disobedience and not willing to improve its corporate governance,’ wrote Verma.
"Textile and apparel manufacturing in the USA is enjoying resurgence. And making the most of this even companies based in India and China are investing in US facilities, says a recent Textiles Intelligence report. Reshoaring as its known may have been triggered partly due to concerns over factory safety and growing concerns over the safety of chemicals and a lack of traceability. Equally, retailers and brands are being taken to task over environmental sustainability."
Textile and apparel manufacturing in the USA is enjoying resurgence. And making the most of this even companies based in India and China are investing in US facilities, says a recent Textiles Intelligence report. Reshoaring as its known may have been triggered partly due to concerns over factory safety and growing concerns over the safety of chemicals and a lack of traceability. Equally, retailers and brands are being taken to task over environmental sustainability. All of these are easier to monitor and control in US factories than they are in far-off developing countries.
Competitive advantage
Similarly, developments in technology, notably automation and robotics are enabling US factories to cut costs while proximity to the market provides producers in the US with a significant competitive advantage over companies based in distant countries in terms of quick response and market knowledge.
Reshoring would appear to have the support of the public. Almost eight out of 10 US consumers say they would rather buy an American-made product than an imported one. And over 60 per cent of them would be willing to pay 10 per cent more for it.
The resurgence in manufacturing in the USA has been however, fairly modest and followed substantial losses between 2005 and 2008. Indeed, the US apparel industry still supplies less than 3 per cent of the US domestic market for apparel in volume terms. Also, US apparel imports continue to be dominated by low cost Asian suppliers, reflecting the fact that cost minimisation continues to play a vital role in sourcing decisions.
Desperate shortage of skilled operatives in the US is one of the biggest obstacles to reshoring. Moreover, there are not enough people who can do the training. Most of these people retired long ago without being replaced by younger entrants. There is also a lack of skilled technicians who are able to maintain sewing machinery.
Role of migrants
Meanwhile, migrants are playing an important role in the reshoring of textiles and clothing to fill the gap. In general, migrants have a younger age profile than that of the US population as a whole and, if motivated properly, they are likely to work harder and more energetically than their older counterparts. Besides, economic migrants are, by definition, motivated by the potential for increasing their standard of living and are therefore willing to put in the hours and effort required to achieve this. Above all, many migrants bring with them the sewing skills they acquired in their countries of origin, particularly those migrants who originate in Mexico or other Latin American countries.
However, the availability of migrants as a human resource is likely to be limited by public opinion. The subject of migration raises temperatures in most host countries, and there is evidence that the tide is very much against migration on a significant scale.
Bangladesh’s export earnings have fallen 3.5 per cent to $2.53 billion due to negative growth of clothing sector in the first month of current fiscal year compared to the same period a year ago. According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) provisional data in July 2016, Bangladesh fetched $2.53 billion, which is 3.49 per cent less compared to $2.62 billion in July 2015. The figure is nearly 25 per cent less than that of the target of $3.37 billion set for the month of July 2016.
Meanwhile, trade analysts and manufacturers as well as the government have attributed Eid vacation to the downtrend of export earnings. They argued that the factories, especially the RMGs, were closed due to the vacation, which caused less production. There is no connection between the current situation and the work orders executed in July, which were placed two to three months ago, said Khondaker Golam Moazzem, additional research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Similarly, the country’s RMG export earnings witnessed a 4.41 per cent decline to $2.11 billion in July, which was $2.22 billion in the same period a year ago. The figure is 23.60 per cent less than the target of $3.03 billion set for the month of July 16.
Most global brands doing business in Bangladesh have decided not to move away from the country. They will continue to buy products from Bangladesh’s garment sector despite serial attacks on the foreigners by the Islamist extremists.
Despite the terror strike at a Dhaka restaurant that raised eyebrows of many US-based fashion brands, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety has declared that most of the US companies have decided to stay in Bangladesh and purchase products from Bangladesh’s garment industry.
Meanwhile, along with other friendly countries, US has also expressed serious concern over the security conditions in Bangladesh and offered help in country’s fight against terrorism. People of Bangladesh have been witnessing serial attacks on religious minorities, foreign nationals and independent bloggers from the last couple of years, but the Dhaka café attack was the biggest among them that caught global attention since many foreigners including Japanese, Italian and Indian nationals were killed in the attack.
In order to help Bangladesh in its fight against growing extremism, the United States has agreed to work together. Bangladesh’s Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu has recently made it clear that like Bangladesh, the US is also worried about the security situation in the country. He added that the US has expressed willingness to work with the government of Bangladesh to address issues like cyber crime and militancy.
China’s Zhejiang Export Fair 2016 was held at the International Exhibition Centre in Hanoi from August 4-6. Inaugurating the fair, Feng Wei, Director, Economic-Commerce Desk under China's Zhejiang Commerce Department said the Zhejiang Export Fair would serve as an important bridge to boost China-Vietnam bilateral trade ties. He said to further enhance reciprocal cooperation with ASEAN countries, including Vietnam, his department carried out a project to promote Zhejiang-made products to the world.
Under the project and with the support of Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), the fifth Zhejiang Export Fair could draw participation of 114 Zhejiang companies. Zhejiang is a coastal province located in the Southeast of China with ideal natural conditions. It posted rapid economic growth in recent years and boasts of economic relations with over 230 countries and territories around the world. In 2015, the province’s total export turnover reached $347.4 billion.
For China, Vietnam continued to be the largest trading partner with total import-export revenue of more than $66.6 billion in 2015, up 13.4 per cent year-on-year. For Vietnam too China is the largest trading partner among ASEAN countries. With the intention of promoting the attractive feeling of Zhejiang Made products to Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the fair drew a great deal of attention from local companies and consumers.
VF Corporation has appointed Jim Pisani as its Global Brand President for Timberland®, with immediate effect. Pisani replaces Stewart Whitney who left the company in July 2016. Most recently, Pisani served as President of VF’s licensed sports group that includes the Majestic® brand. He will report to Scott Baxter, Vice President, VF and Group President, Outdoor & Action Sports Americas.
Pisani joined VF in 2008 as President of VF Licensed Sports Group. The business unit’s Majestic® brand is the official on-field uniform provider for Major League Baseball. It also supplies apparel and fan wear through licensing agreements with U.S. and international professional sports leagues, colleges and universities, and lifestyle brands.
Prior to VF, Pisani held a succession of leadership roles in branding, merchandising, sales and marketing at PepsiCo and Kraft Foods.
For Indonesian textile giant Sri Rejeki Isman (Sritex), the security concerns in Europe caused by a series of terrorist attacks and an influx of refugees from war-torn Middle Eastern countries has presented an opportunity to expand its military uniform business, under the brands Sritex and SRX. The company is intensifying its approach to affected countries, in the hope of tapping into the spillover from their defense budgets.
Sritex corporate secretary Welly Salam says, they are eyeing three countries in Europe, some former Soviet Union countries, to export military and fashion items. Sritex, exports military uniforms to 30 countries and aims to increase export proportion gradually from 49 to 60 per cent by 2018. Among its biggest overseas customers are Germany, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.
Apart from efforts to open up new markets, Sritex, has also been developing an additional production facility at $245 million to boost its annual production since 2014. The new facility, located in the Central Java city of Sukoharjo, will support its existing factory, which currently runs at a 90 per cent utility rate and employs almost 18,000 workers. Once completed by this year-end, the new plant will add to the total capacity of Sritex’ annual production by 16 per cent to 654,0000 bales of thread; weaving 50 per cent more to 120 million meters of greige fabric, dying 100 per cent more to 240 million yards of fabric and tailoring 67 per cent more to 30 million pieces of attire.
The half-century-old firm buys raw material, like cotton, 100 per cent from Australia and the US, 50 per cent of its polyester comes locally and 50 per cent of its rayon locally as producers of the two materials are also limited in the country.
