FW
Appointed as the senior management member of Welspun Living since Oct 04, 2024, Saumil Mehta will lead the home textiles business of the company’s subsidiary Welspun Global Brands. In this capacity, he will report to Dipali Goenka, Managing Director and CEO.
With an extensive experience spanning over 20 years across the FMCG and FMCD sectors, Mehta has led several business transformations, sales, consumer marketing, brand development and strategic business portfolios. Armed with a BE degree in Civil Engineering from the Birla Vishwakarma Mahavidyalaya and a Master’s degree in International Business from the Symbiosis Institute, Mehta has previously worked for leading organiations including Jubilant Foodworks, PepsiCo India Holdings, and Kraft Heinz India.
Driven by a rising demand for sustainable, eco-friendly textiles, the global hemp yarn market is witnessing a significant growth. Valued at $14.36 billion in 2023, the market is expected to grow by a11.71 per cent CAGR from 2025-32, to reach a value of $38.9 billion by 2032.
Along with its biodegradability, Hemp’s requirement of minimal water and pesticides make it an ideal alternative to conventional materials like cotton. Additionally, the material is naturally resistant tomold and ultraviolet light. Its hypoallergenic properties make it an ideal material for those with sensitive skin.
Being increasingly adopted for apparel, home textiles, and accessories, hemp is becoming a fashionable and eco-conscious choice for designers. However, the material still faces stigma due to its association with cannabis, which can hinder growth, particularly in regions with regulatory challenges. The market also suffers from a limited and fragmented supply chain often leading to price volatility and difficulty in meeting rising demand.
Further complicating the issue, regulatory barriers including hemp cultivation and processing laws in some countries threaten to impede market growth. However, advancements in cultivation techniques, fiber extraction, and spinning technologies are helping make the material more competitive by improving its quality and consistency. Combining hemp with cotton, wool, or polyester, blended yarns are rising in popularity, offering enhanced properties like softness and strength.
E-commerce is playing a pivotal role in expanding the market by providing consumers worldwide easy access to hemp-based products. North America leads the market in the US with the 2018 Farm Bill legalising hemp cultivation. Another key region is Europe, where sustainability initiatives in countries like Germany and France are driving growth in hemp textiles. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific, with its traditional textile industries in countries like China and India, is emerging as a strong growth market.
In 2024, Burberry’s brand value fell $2 billion reveals Kantar’ annual ranking of UK’s top 75 brands. The report titled, ‘Brandz,’ reveals, the dip in Burberry’s value makes it the second-largest loser after St James’s Place. With the luxury industry hit hard by a downturn in spending as the ‘revenge shopping’ post-COVID-19 fades, even the wealthiest consumers have been feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis. Luxury players like LVMH are also facing challenges with Bernard Arnault, CEO, LVMH dropping from the top spot as the world’s richest person.
For Burberry, the luxury downturn coincided with internal issues as its drawn-out turnaround plan faltered, leading to the brand’s value reducing to a half in 2024. The brand sacked Jonathan Akeroyd as its CEO in July after the company issued its third profit warning of the year and suspended its dividend, causing shares to plummet. The brand also terminated hundreds of employees with a fall in its valuation leading ton investment analysts speculating about a potential takeover. In August, Burberry was removed from the FTSE 100, the benchmark for the UK's biggest stocks.
Several factors are responsible for Burberry’s current struggles, opine analysts. These include the brand’s over dependence on slower-growing apparel segments and weak performance in iconic outerwear and leather goods. The brand also made multiple changes in creative direction over the past decade. Combined with recent price hikes, these failed to resonate with aspirational consumers amid a broader slowdown in luxury spending.
However, Jelena Sokolova, Analyst, Morningstar, believes, the brand still has an opportunity to recover by renewing focus on outerwear collections and designing more affordable ranges, Other retailers such as Marks & Spencer, meanwhile, are witnessing 38 per cent boost in brand value, a result of positive shifts in consumer perception of both its grocery and fashion offerings.
The Lenzing Group, a global leader in sustainable cellulose fiber production, has acquired a minority stake in TreeToTextile AB, joining existing stakeholders H&M Group, Inter Ikea Group, Stora Enso, and LSCS Invest. This partnership is centered on advancing the production of sustainable fibers to drive positive change in the textile industry.
Lenzing has been a leader in sustainable fiber production for more than 85 years, with its fibers marketed under the Tencel, LenzingEcovero, and Veocel brands. CEO Rohit Aggarwal emphasized that TreeToTextile’s technology complements Lenzing’s efforts to lower the environmental impact of fiber production, reinforcing the company’s commitment to innovation and sustainability.
TreeToTextile, established in 2014, focuses on developing eco-friendly processes for cellulosic fiber production. CEO Roxana Barbieru emphasized that Lenzing’s involvement will accelerate their market reach and enhance their sustainability efforts.
The deal, subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by the first half of 2025.
In its interim report for FY2024-25, British supermarket chain Tesco reported a 0.3 per cent rise in sales from its ‘Home and Clothing’ division.
The retailer’s sales from the ‘Home’ and Clothing’ division rose by 1.6 per cent. Tesco attributes this growth to the continued strong performance of its clothing range, which it stated is ‘outpacing the broader store-based clothing market.’
The report also noted a (1.3) percentage point impact due to the company’s new partnership with The Entertainer, which affects Tesco’s toy offerings. This partnership has also affected the company’s sales in the ‘Home’ and clothing division. However, sales in this division are expected to recover by the second half of the year.
In total, Tesco’s group sales grew by 3.5 percent at actual rates and 4 percent at constant rates during the last quarter, reaching US $41.28 million.
Launched by the Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) in partnership with the Global Organic Textile Standard in Sept 2024, the #BehindTheSeams campaign attracted participation from over 290 brands across the world.
The 2nd annual campaign featured daily giveaways from fashion, soft home and other textiles brands. Home brands who participated in bedding giveaways included Naturepedicand Mungo. Highlighting ‘organic in-conversion’ farming, the #BehindTheSeams campaign urges brands to support farmers during the critical transition period. OCA provides critical resources such as capacity-building, premium payments and market linkages.
The organisation collaborated with over 35,000 in-conversion farmers in Indiaand Pakistan during the 2023-2024 cotton season as a part of a broader program that supports over 80,000 farmers. This collaboration was facilitated by 16 brands who participated in OCA’s Farm Program.
At an event in Leh, Giriraj Singh, Union Minister for Textiles, presented Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra, Lieutenant Governor (Retd) with the Certificate of Geographical Indication (GI) Registration for Ladakh’s renowned Pashmina wool. The GI tagging would prevent Kashmiri traders from falsely marketing Ladakh's prized Pashmina wool as their own, said Singh.
Emphasising the benefits of this GI recognition for the people of Ladakh, especially the Pashmina herders, Singh said, herders would greatly benefit from this GI recognition as though known as ‘Soft Gold,’ Ladakh’s Pashmina wool has historically been misused by others promoting it under a different identity.
Emphasising on the importance of supporting Pashmina and Merino sheep stall feeding, Singh urged the government to increase the production of Pashmina wool in Ladakh, ensuring higher revenue for goat herders. Helauded the efforts of the Union Territory Administration to reduce the mortality rate among Pashmina goat offspring.
Further, Singh proposed measures to further strengthen the Pashmina wool industry in Ladakh. These included establishing Pashmina breeding farms in Leh and Kargil to prevent inbreeding, promoting artificial insemination, and launching selective breeding projects. He also suggested holding competitions among farmers for best practices, offering incentives, testing the nutritional value of Pashmina goat milk, and improving fodder by making feed pellets from stocked supplies.
Hailing the GI registration of Ladakh’s Pashmina Wool as historic milestone, Mishra criticized the sale of inferior or fake Pashmina products as having previously undermined the authenticity of Ladakh’s top-quality Pashmina wool. He urged the Ministry to support the further development and promotion ofLadakh’s Pashmina industry. He also stressed on the need to encourage young people to participate in the traditional practice of Pashmina goat herding, preserving this age-old culture.
The Global Fashion Agenda (GFA) has launched a new initiative to support stakeholders to foster a circular textile industry in Indonesia.
Titled, ‘Circular Fashion Partnership: Indonesia,’ the initiative has been launched in partnership with Rantai Tekstil Lestari (RTL) Indonesia. It is supported by implementation partners Reverse Resources, Closed Loop Fashion, and Circle Economy Foundation, and funded by H&M Foundation and contributions from the private sector.
The initiative urges brands, manufacturers, waste handlers, recyclers and government agencies to actively participate in the collective action program to achieve impact at scale.
A cross-sectorial initiative, The Circular Fashion Partnership: Indonesia aims to develop effective circular fashion systems by capturing and recycling post-industrial textile waste. The program seeks to minimise virgin resources use by increasing the availability of recycled materials. The program organises raining sessions and working groups for brands, local manufacturers, waste handlers, recyclers, and knowledge institutes to help promote best practices and educate industry stakeholders on the principles of the circular economy.
Project national lead, RTL ensures, the program is customised to the local context and includes all local stakeholders. It also confirms the program’s alignment with government’s strategy, and its connection with the right ministries to help bridge the identified policy gaps.
A request by Reliance Industries has led to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry-led Director General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) launching an anti-dumping investigation into the import of mono ethylene glycol (MEG) from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. A key textile material, MEG is used to produce polyester staple fibre (PSF).
A significant producer of polyester staple fiber through the Chemicals and Petrochemicals Association of India (CPMA), Reliance has raised concerns over the impact of imported MEG on the domestic industry.
Accusing the above-mentioned countries of dumping MEG imports into India at prices below normal value, CPMA alleges, this not only causes material injury to domestic producers but also threatens the industry’s future viability. With the support of Indian Glycol, the association has called for imposition of an anti-dumping law on the material’s imports.
In response, DGTR will examine MEG imports from Apr 01, 2023, to Mar 31, 2024, while it will also make an injury assessment of the fiscal years 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23. The exact production costs in the countries under investigation are not publicly available. However, the significantly lower export prices suggest dumping practices, says CPMA
Though anti-dumping measures typically aim to protect domestic producers, they could potentially hurt downstream industries, such as garment, fabric, and yarn manufacturers, that rely on MEG imports. Raising production costs for these sectors, anti-dumping duties reduce their competitiveness in the global market.
The Northern European fashion retailer C&A recycles denim leftovers from its own factory in Moenchengladbach, Germany into a new flooring material.
Specially designed for retail environments, the flooring material is made by recycling about 80 per cent of leftovers that include jeans fabrics, cork underlays from the bottle industry and wooden boards processed using natural products such as vegetable fats and natural rubber. The fibers are produced by the Swiss family-run company Lico using natural products such as vegetable fats and natural rubber. Moreover, the company uses energy from renewable sources, including a photovoltaic system and local hydropower plants.
The jeans flooring has been awarded with Environment Product Declaration (EPD) and the Blue Angel Award. It also won the Green Collection Award 2023.
The company providing the jeans scraps, the C&A FIT (Factory for Innovation in Textiles), is a pioneering facility in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Opened in 2021, the factory manufactures around 1,000 pairs of jeans every day using advanced automation, digitalisation and electricity from renewable sources. The factory also conserves water by using only 10–15 liters per a pair of jeans compared to the industry standard of 70 liters.
