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Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has launched ‘InnoTex 2018’- an innovative content in the Indian T&C industry. The contest will invite entries on innovative ideas/concept that have been devised for best design, method, process, product and cost reduction in any area from Ginning to Garment. The task of organising the contest has been entrusted with CITI Young Entrepreneurs Group (YEG).
North India Textile Research Association (NITRA) will be the Knowledge Partner of InnoTex 2018 which will help in proper evaluation of the applications and provide guidance to the applicants. The contest will create innovators by enabling them to showcase their talent to the industry leaders and get instant recognition. It will bridge the gap between the innovators and end user industry and would further guide the researchers on the actual demand of the industry in these areas.
The contest will invite applications from Individuals or a team of individuals not exceeding four. Companies/ institutions cannot directly participate in the event but can sponsor individuals or the teams of innovators. The innovation should not be older than 1st April 2017.
D’décor will be the Principal Sponsor of the event while Lenzing AG and Murata Machinery Ltd will be the Event Supporting Sponsors. The event will give cash awards to the winners apart from felicitating them in front of the entire textile and clothing fraternity.
Farfetch the British company, ranked 24 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Online Marketplaces database, has filed papers for initial public offering. According to filing, the company’s gross merchandise value, or the cumulative price of goods sold through the online marketplace, hit $909.8 million in 2017, a 55.3 per cent rise over the $585.8 million GMV of 2016. That surpasses the median growth of 47.3 per cent for all online apparel marketplaces in Internet Retailer’s estimate.
Farfetch’s total revenue generated through online transactions rose 63.8 per cent in 2017 to $296.4 million, but it has yet to generate a profit. Beyond sales, the marketplace notes that active customers—those that made a purchase on the marketplace in the last 12 months—grew 43.6 per cent to more than 935,000 from 652,000. The filing says 980 luxury sellers offer goods through the marketplace, with more than 5.7 million items available across 3,200 brands.
Farfetch ranked No. 2 in terms of gross merchandise value in the apparel marketplace category of Internet Retailer’s marketplace database, behind Wish. In addition to its online marketplace, the company also owns bricks-and-mortar luxury goods boutique Browns.
The last day at Gartex India 2018, despite being a Monday, witnessed the best turnout as many decision makers and company heads participated in the event. The day included a conference titled ‘Denim Talks,’ which was attended by industry stalwarts like Ritesh Sharma, Retail Lead, Reliance Industries Ltd.; Sartaj Singh Mehta, Director – Design, PEPE Jeans; Ashish Pateria, EY; Anuraag S, Founder, Pencil Box; Manuj Kanchan, GM-South Asia, Jeanologia and Dr. Christina Raab, Global Implementation Director, ZDHC who were the key speakers at the event.
The speakers at the event focused on areas that can help innovate the denim. Sustainable fabrics like R-Elan by Reliance, modifications in denim tailoring or patchy and ornamented denims, and switching to digital and sustainable washing technologies are some of the measures that were discussed at the event. The event was attended by many sportswear companies. The industry has been doing well with the Indian apparel industry seeing a year-on-year growth. The event featured companies from small centres like Indore and Jaipur.
Life AskReach-an initiative funded by the European Union’s LIFE Programme aims to collaborate with companies to create awareness amongst consumers about the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals in the textile supply chain.
The project, set to run until August 2022, involves 20 partner organisations including governmental institutions, research institutes and NGOs from across Europe. It will mainly focus on raising consumer awareness on SVHC (substances of very high concern) in garments, training them to make more informed purchasing choices; increasing awareness about their obligation to comply with REACH criteria; improving the flow of information relating to SVHC lists between consumers and suppliers; and improving supply chain communication processes that ultimately aim to substitute SVHC in articles.
One of the outcomes of the project will be a database which can be populated with relevant information on SVHC in product portfolios. The resource will subsequently be connected to a smartphone app which consumers can access in order to more easily obtain information on SVHC in garments.
The chemical laboratory of TÜV SÜD in its recently expanded textile testing facility in Tirupur, has been awarded ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation by The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL). ISO/IEC 17025:2005 specifies the general requirements for TÜV SÜD to undertake tests, including sampling. It includes testing and calibration performed using standard methods, non-standard methods, and laboratory-developed methods.
The NABL accreditation enables the laboratory to provide improved customer satisfaction, faster turnaround for test results that subsequently reduces time to market. With a strong industry reputation for quality, TÜV SÜD's Tiruppur lab offers a comprehensive range of services with expertise encompassing all textile and knitwear testing requirements. The lab was recently enhanced by adding extensive chemical testing capabilities to an existing world class physical and mechanical facility; thus, making it an all-inclusive testing solutions provider for international and domestic markets. The laboratory will also offer value added services like sampling pick-up, technical support and training support.
TÜV SÜD with its wide network of labs and experts across key markets such as South Asia, European Union, ASEAN, US and UK, has thorough knowledge of compliance in importing nations.
WRAP, the UK’s resource efficiency agency, has identified leasing as an innovative business model to increase the durability of clothes while reducing material use and carbon dioxide emissions. A recent survey by the Westfield Shopping Centre in London also suggested clothing rental as a key future trend.
The potential value of the clothing rental market in the UK is estimated at £923 million, and the model is already well established for certain items, such as dinner jackets and wedding suits for men. However, only a few fashion companies have adopted leasing. Mud Jeans, for example, offers consumers a pair of organic jeans on lease for year after which consumers can either swap or return them. Girl Meets Dress, founded in the UK in 2009, also operates with a view to make garment ownership obsolete.
Although a growing trend, clothing rental is largely available for luxury market, rental of lower priced items is not preferred as they can be easily bought. Clothing rental has the potential to reduce waste and extend the lifespan of garments, but to achieve a more sustainable industry a systemic change in business practice and consumer behavior is needed.
The Bihar government plans to emboss the Handloom Mark to all handloom cotton and silk products woven in the state to bring in authenticity and transparency in subsidy distribution. The process will also help the government to identify which product has been woven where and by whom. The government will provide subsidy ranging from 10 to 20 per cent only on those products that carry the Handloom Mark. This step will bring transparency in subsidy distribution, as the number printed on the label will denote who wove what and where.
Bihar, currently, houses around 6,741 active handlooms with unique identification numbers, which the state government is trying to increase to 10,000. The Handloom Mark scheme was launched in 2006 under the office of the Development Commissioner for Handlooms, with the textiles committee under the Ministry of Textiles as the implementing agency to give a collective identity to handloom products that would help guarantee for the buyer that the product being bought is genuinely hand-woven. The National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, had designed its logo from the interlocking of the warp and the weft to form a three-dimensional cube.
So far, Bihar has been using Handloom Mark labels in the satrangi chadar - the hospital bedsheet scheme meant for government hospitals since 2017-18. The government now wants to expand to all products, except low-priced ones such as gamchha (towel), lungi and handkerchief. The challenge was to supply enough Handloom Mark labels to weavers, as the textile ministry offices in Varanasi and Calcutta are not providing it in adequate numbers.
"A study by the US Fashion Industry Association indicates almost 67 per cent respondent’s expected value or volume of goods sourced from China to decrease over the next two years. A striking example of this is Steven Madden, which expects to source 15 per cent of its handbags from Cambodia this year, with this percentage doubling in 2019. Similarly, Tapestry, the luxury company behind Coach and Kate Spade handbags, is boosting Vietnamese production and sourcing only 5 per cent from China. Vera Bradley, meanwhile, is planning to shift its manufacturing operations to Cambodia and Vietnam from China."
Increasing tariffs on Chinese products has led to the rise of countries like Cambodia and Vietnam as attractive investment destinations from consumer-goods like Steven Madden and Tapestry Inc.’s Coach. And while the Trump administration has slapped duties on goods from many of its largest trading partners this year, it has allowed some Cambodian products to continue duty-free access to the US market.
A study by the US Fashion Industry Association indicates almost 67 per cent respondent’s expected value or volume of goods sourced from China to decrease over the next two years. A striking example of this is Steven Madden, which expects to source 15 per cent of its handbags from Cambodia this year, with this percentage doubling in 2019. Similarly, Tapestry, the luxury company behind Coach and Kate Spade handbags, is boosting Vietnamese production and sourcing only 5 per cent from China. Vera Bradley, meanwhile, is planning to shift its manufacturing operations to Cambodia and Vietnam from China.
Cambodia gains with changing dynamics
This move to shift production has impacted China severely. Stocks of Hong Kong-based Stella International
Holdings, developer and manufacturer of footwear brands like Prada SpA and Guess has dropped to its lowest point since 2009.
On the other hand, according to an annual report by the National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s footwear exports rose 25 per cent in 2017, while its garment exports increased 8 per cent in the same period. Vietnam, meanwhile, has enjoyed a foreign investor-led economic boom for years, attracting billions of dollar investments from the likes of Samsung Electronics and Intel Corp. It is transforming from mainly an exporter of agricultural commodities, such as rice and coffee, to a Southeast Asian manufacturing hub.
Even before China and the US escalated their trade tensions, Cambodia enjoyed duty-free privileges for products such as handbags, suitcases and wallets, part of a US program to help boost development in low-income countries. This designation has so far been maintained by the Trump administration. Cambodia also is one of the lowest-cost countries when it comes to labor. Oxford Economics estimates labor cost in Cambodia to be a quarter of China’s.
The down side
However, the country’s productivity rates are low compared to China, making it a challenge to manufacture more elaborate products. A survey by the Hong Kong Development Council, which promotes trade and investment for the territory, suggests average labor productivity of Cambodian workers was about 50 to 60 per cent that of Chinese workers. Cambodia’s infrastructure also lags behind China’s. The nation’s infrastructure was ranked 106 out of 137, behind Vietnam and Laos, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report. This can cause difficulties in getting merchandise out of the country.
As per the US government, the recent Cambodian elections held in July, where the ruling party won all 125 seats in the National Assembly, were ‘flawed’. As a result, the US and Europe are likely review their trade policies and potentially stop giving tariff preference to Cambodia’s garment industry. This can prove to be a fatal blow for the nation, where garments make up 64 percent of total exports.
Uzbekistan has initiated several measures to focus on the textile industry. The country is trying to grab foreign investments to implement various projects worth over $70 million. As an additional incentive for Chinese investors to kick-off their operations in Uzbekistan, a delegation of 33 representatives of China’s associations and textile companies was hosted recently by the Uztekstilprom Association in Tashkent. The Chinese delegation was headed by the Chinese National Council for Textiles and Clothing.
The event aimed to boost cooperation between Uzbek and Chinese companies involved in the textile and apparel-knitting as well as the production and supply of finished textile products to the Chinese market. The forum was attended by the the leaders of the State Committee of Uzbekistan for Investments, UzTrade JSC of the Foreign Trade Ministry, the Economy Ministry. Representatives of the textile industry of the two countries were also present in the meeting. Bukhara, Kashkadarya, Samarkand and Syrdarya regions were represented as major locations where investment can be made.
The combination of reshoring and related foreign direct investments in the US jumped 52 per cent in 2017. Apparel saw one of the largest increases, while transportation remained the strongest overall. Of the total manufacturing jobs that were added, 90 per cent were reshoring and FDI related.
The US apparel consumer flexes their muscle on deciding how, why, and where they will purchase their sewn goods products. The effect of this ability extends into the very fiber of the industry, reflecting in more orders in smaller quantities with shorter lead times, while slowing the sales cycle, putting pressure on existing e-commerce infrastructure, forcing the adoption of fast fashion, and digitalisation of the value chain and as costs increase, the consumer pushes for the same if not a lower price.
While US imports of textiles and clothing increased in value by 1.3 per cent in 2017, this increase came after a 6.5 per cent decline in the previous year and, as a result, imports remained below the levels seen in 2014 and 2015. Total apparel imports were at their lowest levels in several years. With consumer spending on the rise, there is no time like the present for locally manufactured apparel, furniture, and transportation interiors.
