FW
Women's wear designer Tanya Taylor and men's wear designer Siki Im have been named the winners of the 2015 Woolmark Prize for the US region. Other finalists in the women’s wear category were Chris Gelinas, Kaelen, Nellie Partow and Novis. In menswear, Siki Im beat brands Cadet, David Hart, Lucio Castro and Thaddeus O'Neil.
The winners were chosen based on their sketches of a six-piece merino-wool capsule collection, with one garment actually produced. Two finalists from each international region — Australia, Asia, the US, Europe, the UK and India, Pakistan, Middle East — will receive a cash prize of Australian $50,000 and the chance to produce and sell a six-piece capsule collection made from Australian superfine merino wool.
From there, two overall international merino prize winners (one from men’s wear, one women’s wear) will be named by the Merino Wool Company. The pair will each receive Australian $100,000. Men’s wear finalist will be announced in Italy in January while the women’s wear finalists will be judged in New York in February. A short time back the winners of this year's international Woolmark prize for Europe and Australia were announced. Also, two South Korean designers were named winners for the Asia region.
www.woolmarkprize.com/
The International Apparel Sourcing Show in New York was kicked off by hundreds of textile and apparel makers from China. The figure this year was up 30 per cent compared to last year as these companies are looking to get a foothold in new niche markets in the US. The show being held at the Jacob K Javits Convention Center, Manhattan has over 600 Chinese companies and around 1,000 companies from 20 countries participating and showcasing their products.
Sun Ruizhe, Vice Chairman of the China National Textile and Apparel Council pointed out China’s textile and apparel sector was undergoing a change and more Chinese companies were focusing on the overseas market. This was partly because of the saturation in China. Chinese consul-general in New York Zhang Qiyue also expressed his happiness about China’s presence at the show, which showed that the future of China-US trade and economic cooperation in the textile and apparel industry was promising.
China’s textile and fabric industry’s contribution to the US-China bilateral relations was huge. Bilateral textile and apparel commerce grew from $6.2 billion to $46 billion from 2000-2014. Exports from China to the US increased a little from January to May this year, as per the National Bureau of Statistics. In April 2015, exports of textiles and apparel to the US increased by 7.8 per cent.
Gap Inc, one of the biggest players in the industry has seen a drop in its market share in the US from 5.1 per cent to 4.7 per cent over the past five years. This, despite the brand performing better than other casual brands. The apparel retail’s rapid shift to online space and store-based retailers’ foray in this arena being relatively slower means that the brand may not be able to reverse the drop soon. In fact, Gap Inc’s store consolidation strategy has made it almost certain that its market share will continue to go down. The company needs to strive hard to stay ahead of casual apparel brands as it can hardly recover its market share from fashion players.
Still a strong player
Gap holds less than 5 per cent market share, despite being one the bigger players in the US. This shows the diverse nature of the US apparel industry. This may seem a low share, but the company has grabbed this share with only three main brands in its arsenal. Brands that have a comparable or higher market share are multi-brand retail chains, general merchandise retailers and supermarkets who generally offer a number of national and private label brands.
After the US recession, Gap started losing buyers who moved quickly to fast-fashion brands. They moved away from casual clothing to affordable fashion wear. Gap’s merchandise was being viewed as less fashionable by consumers which had a negative impact on sales. The market share of the retailer fell from 5.11 per cent in 2009 to 4.34 per cent in 2012. And as fast fashion brands continue to gain ground Gap’s market share will continue to fall. But despite that Gap will continue to remain a strong player as specialty players such as Abercrombie, American Eagle, and Aeropostale are smaller compared to Gap. Thus, the company’s position looks strong, although it does seem that it’s losing its footing over the past few years with growing competition. Of course, Gap can continue its strong leadership position by smart inventory control, and bringing out trendy products in keeping with demand.
The Bangladesh Apparel & Safety Exposition is set to take place at Chittagong from 6-8 August 2015. The expo is being organised by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). The aim is to explore every avenue to achieve the vision of $50 billion in RMG export by 2021. This target was set during the Dhaka Apparel Summit 2014. Chittagong as the host city for the event has special significance as it is the commercial hub of Bangladesh. About 95 per cent of the country’s sea-borne export and import is handled at Chittagong Port.
The expo will feature locally developed apparels. This platform also provides an opportunity for global apparel retailers to meet experienced clothing manufacturers of Bangladesh. The event also aims to facilitate dialogue among stakeholders through four informative seminars to develop ways for the country to pursue its vision of the $50 billion benchmark and also the aim to be the main brand across the world by 2021. Besides, cultural talent of the country’s garment workers and their caliber will also be showcased at the event.
Since Bangladesh is considered the preferred apparel-sourcing destination, BGMEA hopes that this event will help exploit the country’s potential and ensure a safe and sustainable apparel sector in Bangladesh.
The Tirupur hosiery cluster feels that changes in the procedure of claiming excise duty credit could hamper its business. According to the new rules, excise duty credit can be claimed by producers of end products only if the previous links in the production chain have paid the duty for the inputs at each of the stages. Producers of garments from now will not be able to get exemptions on excise duty if duty it has not been paid on any of the inputs like buttons, fabrics or even packaging materials.
Tirupur says it’s a hosiery product manufacturing cluster which is dominated by mirco, small and medium scale enterprises. The production processes are scattered with little vertical integration. So ,it would be difficult for garment manufacturers to prove that duty has been paid on all items used in the course of manufacturing garments. Hosiery manufacturers further say most suppliers of inputs are micro enterprises and expecting them to keep financial statements on duties paid is not realistic.
They feel that the amendment notification was issued without much deliberation with industrialists in clusters like Tirupur, where the nomenclature of the production chain is unique due to its dispersed nature.
Pakistan is yet to decide about the cotton intervention price for the current season. Meanwhile growers may be deprived of benefits. It was decided to take the provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab on board for the implementation mechanism. Without inputs by provincial governments, the matter may further linger, negatively impacting growers. The intervention price of cotton had been fixed at Rs 3,000 per 40 kg for the fiscal year 2015-16.
As per Indian model of cotton procurement, the government may also procure seed cotton instead of lint cotton on an experimental basis. Cotton price may be fixed in between the import and export parity prices. Lint cotton is exported as well as imported by Pakistan and during this course of business a lot of revenue is spent, which may be avoided through the import of only long staple cotton which is required for fine quality cotton in certain textile sectors.
Pakistan does not give any subsidy on cotton, so growers have to compete with the prices of subsidised cotton. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan is likely to be made bound to procure at least two million cotton bales for this year.
UK chancellor George Osborne declared his plans for a new national living wage in this month’s budget. Fairtrade focuses on working with the most vulnerable countries in developing world. It tries to secure market access and better terms of trade for farmers and workers. About 100 million smallholder farmers are dependant on cotton for their earnings and most of them are struggling for decent wages. Where textile industry is concerned, companies’ information, earlier, only dealt with who their importer was, but now, companies are taking an interest in the supply chain and have better awareness of the factories used to produce what they sell. There has been a focus on improving the conditions of textile factory workers.
Fairtrade’s vision is that ethics and sustainability can be joined together as one and together everyone can ensure that all sections of the workforce are prioritised. Fairtrade brings in a safety net—the promise of a minimum price that works in spite of the competition from subsidised production in the US and EU, and the insecurities of global cotton pricing. The farmers decide collectively how the Fairtrade Premium is spent—on training to improve soil and productivity and on the most important ways for their communities to benefit. This is seen in Pratibha-Vasudha, India, a Fairtrade cooperative in Madhya Pradesh.
Fairtrade enables businesses to have traceability and more transparency in their supply chains. This helps secure the future of cotton farmers, their families and communities.
The Indian textile industry will need to introspect and look into areas where there is scope for scaling up and upgrading the fabric sector. The industry’s long term prospects look bright. The textile industry in China is slowing down and Pakistan’s growth, constrained by power and other problems, is expected to reach a saturation point sooner than later. Diversion of garment orders to India has already begun. There is a need for enhancing yarn consuming capacities within the country.
The most important policy intervention required at present is making the Technology Upgradation Fund effective. The scheme has no funds available for new investments and the Budget allocation is not enough even to cover the backlog of the last fiscal in full. While India’s cotton production exceeds consumption, the country continues to import cotton because of deficit in certain slots, especially the extra long staple cotton. There is also a short supply of short staple cotton.
Though external issues such as a slowdown in the EU and policy jolts from China could have an adverse impact, there are more crucial issues that need attention such as infrastructural infirmities, transaction costs, inordinate delays in getting duty refunds, high cost of export credit and so on.
There has been a 56.72 per cent fall in India’s cotton exports to China in 2014-15. As a result cotton prices in the domestic market are subdued. China’s stock levels have soared, spinners in China have been given fewer quotas and discouraged from direct imports. They are being encouraged to buy more domestic cotton and also from government agencies holding stocks.
In the meantime India is protecting its farmers by providing minimum support price. Domestic cotton demand is expected to rise about seven per cent this crop year. India is also looking for exports to various cotton deficient countries. Lower prices for Indian cotton may help boost shipments to these markets. India is the world's biggest producer and the second biggest seller of cotton. Demand from China used to account for 60 per cent of Indian cotton exports.
Yarn exports to China have also declined by 20 per cent due to a slowing in the textile industry there. Exporters have tried to compensate for this fall elsewhere, resulting in a slight rise in yarn shipments to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Vietnam during recent months. The fall in global demand, decline in commodity prices and dip in oil prices are impacting India’s overall exports. Falling for seven months in a row, India's exports in June dipped by 15.82 per cent.
Japan has a mechanism for providing soft loans to small and medium garment enterprises in Bangladesh. However, many apparel units find themselves disqualified as their factories have been constructed in violation of national building code. The fund was created to assist small and medium readymade garment factories in becoming earthquake-resistant by means of restructuring and retrofitting.
Many of these factories have not approved their designs ever or have made deviations from the factory design. The national building code was adopted in 2006. Many garment factory owners say their structures came up before that. Readymade garment factories in Bangladesh have been set up over a period of 36 years.
Among the criteria for the loan are that the factory location should be in and around Dhaka city. The workforce should be below 2,000 and the factory should not be located in a rented building. The Japanese fund was created to support readymade garment factories in making their buildings safe. It does not guide them on compliance with factory safety but provides them total assistance including construction mechanism, checking factory buildings, design, engineering and so on. The target of the fund is to help transfer technology and make the units quake-resistant.
