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Maria Borromeo is president of Hudson Jeans. She brings strategic leadership and experience with a record of success of growing and presiding over a brand from its inception.
Hudson Jeans belongs to the Differential Brands Group, which has a portfolio of other global consumer brands like Robert Graham and SWIMS.
Under Maria’s leadership, the company looks forward to maximizing the growth potential for Hudson not only through the implementation of a strategic vision that aligns with the core Hudson culture and values, but also capitalizing on new product and marketing initiatives and strengthening the brand’s digital and direct-to-consumer strategy.
Prior to joining Hudson, Borromeo was the co-founder and CEO of Thakoon, a global luxury brand. Borromeo successfully led all aspects of the business’s development, culminating in its acquisition and shift to a direct-to-consumer model. Borromeo devised and executed the long-term strategic vision for the brand while creating significant value by driving a steady and consistent growth trajectory. Borromeo has also worked with other leading global brands including Alexander McQueen and Etro.
Gerber Technology delivers industry-leading software and automation solutions that help apparel and industrial customers improve their manufacturing and design processes and more effectively manage and connect the supply chain, from product development and production to retail and the end customer.
Its digital solutions include the Yunique PLM product lifecycle management software as well as AccuMark, the industry-leading pattern design, grading, marker making and production planning software.
The digital solutions architecture uses common file structures. Data can easily be passed to the cut room where smart machines, like the Gerber spreader XLs series and the Gerber Paragon line of multi-ply Gerber cutters, can process the order with a simple barcode scan.
The Z1 single-ply cutter with Contour Vision performs automated vision-aided cutting. An automated scan-to-cut system processes rolls of custom printed textiles by automatically generating cut files to drive the process. The Z1 is enabled with Gerber connect, which allows data to be transferred to the cloud and service professionals to diagnose the cutter in real time ensuring maximum production efficiency.
Gerber aims at highlighting how digitisation can make purchase-activated manufacturing and mass customisation a reality. Manufacturers can digitise their process and increase their overall efficiency, while also reducing their inventory without impacting customer satisfaction or quality.
If a Cambodian garment factory were to close its owner has to pay a maximum of six months’ worth of compensation, based on employee seniority.
Garment manufacturers acknowledge the distress caused by the closure of a garment factory but say the compensation could hurt employers. They accept workers need to be protected, depending on how long they have been working at the company, but say the need to make companies pay all at once will create a new degree of financial burden for the employer and possibly other human resource management challenges. One warning from them is that such a provision could spark an influx of resignations in order to collect the maximum severance amount.
So employers suggest that they should be allowed to pay compensation in phases.
A related problem the country faces is that of employers who abandon their factories without paying workers.
Regulations are being drafted that will require all enterprises to pre-deposit money with the National Social Security Fund so that if factories close unexpectedly, the fund will have the ability to pay workers.
Factory owners pay a seniority bonus once a year to workers. That may be changed to having factories pay every two or three months instead.
Coloreel has sealed a partnership with Ricoh. They will set up a thread coloring unit for the embroidery industry.
Ricoh will build the sub-system for the colorisation process using their long experience in the world of inkjet printing and combine it with Coloreel’s new technology for colorisation.
Coloreel is based in Sweden. Ricoh is an electronics company.
The Coloreel technology enables high-quality instant coloring of textile thread while it is in textile production. The first product to be launched based on this technology is a ground-breaking thread coloring unit that works with any existing industrial embroidery machine. By instantly coloring a white base thread during embroidery production, Coloreel enables complete freedom to create unique embroideries without any limitations in the use of colors.
Coloreel will start production in autumn 2018. Leading companies in textile, fashion and sportswear are standing in line to use the revolutionary product.
Coloreel and Ricoh have cooperated for several years. The partnership is a joint development effort to revolutionise the textile business.
The partnership with Coloreel further demonstrates Ricoh’s commitment to collaboration and pushing boundaries. It combines Ricoh’s history of driving innovation for over 80 years, commitment to customer needs and intent on becoming the analogue to digital transformation experts in industrial process.
From January to April, Coats’ core thread business grew four per cent as key Asian markets performed strongly. The Performance Materials business grew by 19 per cent year-on-year, with four per cent organic growth and a 15 per cent contribution from the acquisition of Patrick Yarn Mill.
Organic growth in Performance Materials was underpinned by continued double-digit growth in hi-tech end uses (for example, flame retardant yarns), with some weakness in certain traditional end use segments in North America.
Crafts sales declined four per cent on a CER basis. This was due to the North American business, where market conditions remained tough, alongside the adverse impact in the period of the introduction of own-label hand knitting products at a major customer.
Coats is the world’s leading industrial thread manufacturer and a major player in the Americas textile crafts market. At home in more than 50 countries, Coats employs 19,000 people across six continents.
Sales growth for the group of eight per cent in the period was above the CER growth of five per cent due to the dollar weakening against certain key trading currencies, for example, the Chinese, the Indian and the Mexican.
The group continues to perform well, and anticipates delivering 2018 full year results in line with management’s expectations.
Production at Cifra, based in Italy, is up 72 per cent. The company does knitwear based on the cutting-edge Warp Knit Seamless technology.
With a daily production capacity of 10,000 pieces and exclusive know-how, Cifra has become a leading business for both design and production volumes. With a design department equipped with ten CAD units, the group develops new customized models every day for major worldwide brands in both the fashion and sports sectors.
Among its customers are Adidas, Lululemon, Wolford and Calzedonia. In 2018, thanks to the athleisure trend many new incoming customers such as Under Armour and Gap are expected. Cifra has also been developing new seamless warp knit products in merino wool for some of Europe’s leading brands. These merino wool products are in the collections of leading brands for both sport and fashion.
Research is being currently focused on innovative fibers: natural, bio-based and recycled at the service of an ever increasing environmental sustainability issue.
The Italian company has an innovative approach to seamless garment manufacture using double needle bar jacquard raschel knitting machines.
Cifra designs and produces seamless socks, tights, pantyhose and seamless garments for intimate apparel, active wear, body shapers, posture garments and swimwear for leading retailers and brands.
Cambodian exports to the United States rose sharply during the first three months of the year.
There was a marked increase in shipments of travel goods after the US renewed its Generalized System of Preferences in March.
Cambodian exports during the first quarter of the year rose 25.5 per cent. The bulk of that growth belonged to travel goods, a category that has attracted a large number of investors after Cambodia was granted duty-free benefits for travel goods exports under the US’ GSP program in 2016.
Orders for garment and footwear products have remained stable.
The ongoing US-China trade dispute also presents a tantalising opportunity to increase exports to the US, the biggest market for Cambodian garment and footwear products.
As barriers to export to the US increase in China, investors from the US will turn to other countries to invest and to set up factories from which they can import. Cambodia can take advantage of this situation. Also the recent tax reform in the US means a buoyant economy. This multiplies opportunities for exporters in Cambodia.
However, Cambodia needs to undergo deep structural reforms, including improving its competitiveness by reducing the cost of electricity and transportation, as well as streamlining and facilitating trade procedures and diversifying its industry.
Some of the biggest names in fashion are joining forces to create a thriving industry based on the principles of a circular economy.
As core partners of Make Fashion Circular, Burberry, Gap, H&M, HSBC, Nike and Stella McCartney will work with the foundation to radically redesign the fashion industry.
Together they will deliver the solutions needed to meet the changing demands and expectations of society, and address the issues that have seen the fashion industry become one of the most polluting and wasteful operating today.
Participants of the Make Fashion Circular initiative will unite behind three key principles to create a system that delivers benefits for citizens, the environment, and businesses: Business models that keep clothes in use; materials that are renewable and safe; solutions that turn used clothes into new clothes.
By working towards this bold new vision, the fashion industry can capture 460 billion dollars currently lost due to the underutilisation of clothes. An additional 100 billion dollars from clothing that could be used, but is currently lost to landfill and incineration, can also be captured.
The fashion industry is replacing the take-make-dispose model, which is worn out, with a circular economy for fashion in which clothes are kept at their highest value and designed from the outset to never end up as waste.
"2018 sales data of H&M reveals rather an alarming figure for the company as the operating profit dropped by 13 per cent for the year to 30 November 2017 while sales grew by just 3 per cent, which was not an expected performance. The problem started in 2016 when shoppers started purchasing online, and heightened competition in the fast fashion sector added pressure. According to Richard Chamberlain, analyst, RBC Capital Markets, H&M has been somewhat stuck in the middle, between value fashion retailers such as Primark, and retailers with more margins that can absorb the costs of online development."
2018 sales data of H&M reveals rather an alarming figure for the company as the operating profit dropped by 13 per cent for the year to 30 November 2017 while sales grew by just 3 per cent, which was not an expected performance. The problem started in 2016 when shoppers started purchasing online, and heightened competition in the fast fashion sector added pressure. According to Richard Chamberlain, analyst, RBC Capital Markets, H&M has been somewhat stuck in the middle, between value fashion retailers such as Primark, and retailers with more margins that can absorb the costs of online development. Giving Zara’s example, he said that the company uses centralised distribution from La Coruña, north-west Spain, and can easily adapt to fulfil online orders. H&M, however, operates from local warehouses, necessitating replication of stock.
In order to boost sales, H&M has started piloting RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, which aims
to improve how it can locate items with digital price tags. It will be gradually rolled out across more markets this year. while the signs are encouraging, H&M still needs to buckle up, believe trade analysts. The company also needs to work faster to offer competitive delivery and collection options. Currently, customers pay for deliveries and returns unless a minimum purchase is made. A click-and-collect service, meanwhile, only started in the UK in 2017. Cedric Lecasble, European retail senior analyst at Raymond James, stated that offering these services for free might pressure its margins a bit, but it is really a top-line issue. To recover the top line, one should recover volume and traction, and to recover traction, they need to be more competitive in what they are offering consumers.
While the company highly banks on its physical stores growth, the company’s ambitious digital plans point towards online sales growth of 25 per cent in 2018. Pointing towards some of the aspects that the company needs to be work on, Martin Newman, executive chairman, Practicology, said that it has not taken the step to provide product ratings and reviews, which rivals such as Arcadia’s Topshop offer. These tactics are important in boosting conversion as they can give customers a feeling of empowerment. Even with value price points, people want to know that what they are buying is ultimately a good purchase and has some durability. It’s that reassurance they can get from other people like them that is missing. It is all about customer empowerment.
New launches in the offing
H&M Group has announced a string of launches in recent months. These include the April launch of online luxury label Nyden and an affordable bridal range. Discount fashion site Afound, meanwhile, will launch later this year. Premium basics brand Arket, which launched last year, continues to expand with new stores, and H&M’s latest designer collaboration with Moschino will hit selected shops in November. Anusha Couttigane, senior fashion analyst, Kantar Consulting, averred that it seems that every month there is a new brand or fascia. They are trying to innovate, and that they are struggling so they want to find new ways to stimulate new interest, it’s a little bit of a distraction in getting some of the basics right. But it needs to scale back a bit, and focus on building out some of those ranges. With a changing market, demanding shoppers and an expanding portfolio of brands, H&M Group has its work cut out, but it finally seems to be addressing the issues that have caused it to lag behind in recent years.
Texprocess will be held in Germany, May 14 to 17, 2019.
This is a fair for textile processing machinery and materials.
Manufacturers from 25 countries have confirmed they will be attending.
The event this year will feature ever more extensively digitalised solutions.
Exhibitors will represent all the stages in the textile processing chain, from IT-supported design, through cutting, seaming and finishing technologies, to textile product logistics and recycling. As a result, they will be of relevance not only to the apparel industry but also to the leather goods industry, furniture manufacturers and the automotive sector.
There will be a strong representation of exhibitors in the fields of CAD/CAM, cutting, making, trimming, sewing, seaming, and fixing as well as those working in automation and information technology.
Held alongside is Techtextil, the leading international trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens. Techtextil, too, shows huge demand, with exhibitors from 44 countries having currently signed up.
There will, for the first time, be a shared hall that includes Techtextil exhibitors with a focus on functional apparel fabrics and Texprocess exhibitors involved in fabric treatment and finishing. This hall will also showcase a completely integrated and networked production line for apparel as well as technical textiles.
