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India will soon take on the leadership in the global apparel industry by edging out Bangladesh, Vietnam and even China, says Tirupur-based clothes maker T R Vijaya Kumar who owns CBC Fashions. He's a second-generation manufacturer, who's transformed his small family undershirt business employing 1,700 employees into an apparel exporter. His ambitions are even greater, that of tripling exports and adding 500,000 jobs in the process.
According to Kumar, after the cost of production has gone up in China, they are phasing out textile. Naturally, opportunities will go to other countries. It is for us in India to grasp the opportunity. The hindrance is that other Asian nations are way of India in apparel exports. India's $17 billion exports of apparel were about half as much as Bangladesh's last year and its 3.7 per cent global market share lagged behind Vietnam's 5.1 per cent. Narrowing the gap is crucial.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest failure so far has been the inability to boost employment, says a recent poll. Some time ago, his government had announced a nearly $1 billion package for textile and garment makers, including subsidies for hiring, tax refunds and relaxation of overtime rules with a goal to create 10 million jobs and boost exports by $30 billion in the next three years. ICRA, the local unit of Moody's Investors Service, called the target challenging as demand slows in importing countries.
The Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), a project of the non-profit company, launched its newest initiative, Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced (YESS). YESS will work to do away with modern-day slavery in cotton harvesting and yarn production by enabling yarn spinners to identify and eliminate cotton produced with forced labour and be verified for having fair labour practices. The development of YESS is supported by Humanity United.
Cotton produced by forced labour documented in at least nine countries according to the US Department of Labour makes its way into clothing and home goods sold by major brands and retailers. This program will pilot in India and Bangladesh, which have numerous spinning mills and are highly affected by forced labour.
Major brands and retailers have endorsed a Statement of Support for this approach including adidas, Hudson’s Bay Company, Indigenous and Woolworths Holdings. YESS will assist companies to comply with new anti-slavery regulations, minimize verification costs, establish an industry-wide traceability approach, and manage a global list of verified spinners. Current multi-stakeholder endorsements are linked here.
YESS is one of just a few initiatives working directly with spinning mills. Located in the middle of the supply chain, spinning mills are uniquely positioned to identify cotton produced with forced labor and prevent it from entering corporate supply chains. This initiative identifies a gap in transparency between where forced labour occurs in the cotton fields and the facilities in which different cottons are blended together. YESS aims to close this gap by focusing on yarn spinning mills in the supply chain, and establishing a training, assessment, and verification process.
As new laws require companies to report on their actions to address modern slavery and human trafficking, more consumers demand ethical manufacturing of their products, and investors increase benchmarking companies against one another on their human rights’ records, YESS will be a vital tool for compliance and responsible sourcing. YESS offers a truly revolutionary approach that will allow apparel brands to identify and root out forced labor from the middle of our supply chains.
According to a sampling of US apparel retailers most have reported lower sales at established stores for the pivotal back-to-school shopping month of August. August is normally a healthy month for US retailers as parents and students line up for back-to-school and even back-to-college shopping, which are a necessity. It is the second-biggest selling period for retailers after the Christmas holiday season.
However, as per National Retail Federation (NRF)'s annual survey earlier last mont, back-to-school shopping was only at the halfway mark despite having started earlier this year. The NRF's annual back-to-school survey showed that parents of K-12 and college students plan to spend a record $75.8 billion this summer denoting an increase of 11.5 per cent over 2015.
The data for August showed US consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in almost a year. The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 101.1 in August from a downwardly revised 96.7 in July. Economists had expected the index to come in unchanged compared to the 97.3 originally reported for the previous month. Net sales for the month were $852.9 million, up 3 per cent from $826 million last year.
Milano Unica (MU) launched in 2005 along with Premiere Vision, the fabric fair in Paris, together represent the world’s two most prestigious fabric expositions that attract numerous global textile procurers and purchasers. The upcoming MU 2017A/W to be held from Sepember 6- 8, will move from the central Fiera Milano City to Rho Fiera Milano in the suburbs and the venue will be as big as 60,000 sq. mt. (1.5 times the size of the previous venue). The newly launched MU is being looked upon with great interest, following its relocation, and the focus is on the importance of overall enhanced fashionability. The new system will allow visitors to move freely throughout all zones, including the former entry-restricted Ideabiella zone.
The Japan Observatory (JOB) at Milano Unica celebrates its 5th anniversary this year. Building on the success of each event year-on-year, the JOB has been highly acclaimed by an ever-growing number of repeaters and buyers. Weaving, dyeing and finishing techniques that originated in Japan can be seen in the collective JOB area. While the earlier editions have seen JOB being held in an area far away from the others, it will be integrated in Hall 8 as part of the overall MU structure this year.
Global apparel business expert, Alvanon has appointed May Fong as Senior Consultant for the Asia Pacific region. In her new role, Fong will meet clients from the fashion business clients to identify their brand-building and business-growth challenges. By this, she would explain Alvanon’s technical and advisory capabilities and offer customized best practice solutions. The announcement was made by Alvanon’s Executive Director Don Howard.
Howard says, Alvanon’s existing and prospective clients throughout the Asia Pacific arena will benefit from Fong’s proven ability to anticipate, recognize and address their most intricate of fashion business concerns. Moreover she is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and English, which will allow her to coordinate planning among fashion businesses that interact across Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.
Fong comes to Alvanon from Lacoste Asia Pacific where she served as Senior Regional Product Manager. She holds a Master of Management from the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia and a Bachelor of Arts in Japanese Studies from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Cotton USA will promote US cotton and offer sourcing support to the fashion industry supply chain at its exhibit at Texworld to be held in Paris from September 12-15. It will provide visitors with comprehensive background information on responsibly-produced US cotton, global cotton market developments, the findings of current market and consumer studies and its ongoing licensing, marketing and sourcing programs.
Cotton USA is the global brand of US cotton. Spun, woven and worn by people who care around the world. It is the benchmark for purity, quality and responsibility. Supported by all seven segments of the US cotton industry, it touches lives by bringing out the best in nature. With offices in Washington, Memphis, London, Hong Kong, Seoul and Shanghai and dedicated representatives in numerous other countries, Cotton USA plays the lead role in educating and strengthening the market for US cotton and US cotton products around the world. The brand provides proactive support through its Sourcing Program with respect to procurement issues, which includes organized sourcing trips to important regions. Visitors also are invited to visit theexhibit to discover the marketing and licensing programmes of Cotton USA and learn about its collaboration with leading brands and retailers around the world.
At the Cotton USA exhibit, the textile trade also will be able to gather information on how the Cotton LEADS™ program, initiated by Australia and the United States, offers manufacturers, brands and retailers a reliable cotton supply chain solution and confidence that the raw material used from these countries is responsibly produced and identified.
The Cotton Made in Africa (CmiA) came out with its interactive annual report that discusses progresses and profits of last year. The report shows that more and more people took to using cotton and thereby help support African small holder farmers this year than the year before. According to the report, CmiA that works with 67 spinning mills, ginned 700,000 tons of cotton for use textile production, up 71 per cent over last year’s 408, 415 tons. Roughly 30.5 million textiles were sent to the market with the CmiA seal.
As of 2015, the company has trained over 750,000 smallholders, showing a 57 per cent increase over last year’s 476,450. The training ensures both an increase in yield and income establishing a solid foundation for the future of the individual smallholders’ and their careers. Despite its sustainable label, the report said that because of the demand alliance it has built, textile companies can buy Cotton Made in Africa at going global market prices.
According to the report, despite challenging conditions in the European markets, characterized by high price sensitivity among companies and even lower awareness of sustainable textiles among consumers, CmiA held its ground well on the international stage. This year, CmiA added ASOS and Danish Bestseller group, to the list of those using cotton and both are using the African cotton and processing it in Africa itself.
Alvanon’s CEO Janice Wang will appear as a featured speaker at Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) Innovation and Technology Symposium September 9 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The theme of the symposium is: ‘When Fashion Meets Technology, the art and science of our industry.’ According to her, high performance sportswear has been dominating the bulk of growth in the apparel market and consumers are demanding ever more personalized, more functional and more fashionable goods in a shorter space of time. Alvanon will look at the advantages of manufacturing locally and how the customer demands a more sustainable product.
The company will also share insights on happenings at some major brands: Under Armour’s new Lighthouse Project, Nike’s new partnership with Apollo Global Management and Adidas’ Speed Factory. Wang is a founding family member of Alvanon, and speaks worldwide on a broad range of fashion business issues.
HKRITA is the premier R & D center for textiles and apparel. It works to foster technology advancement, innovations and breakthroughs to improve Hong Kong’s global competitiveness, and is hosted by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
SGS is one of the biggest textile laboratories in India. It is Extending to 45,000 sq ft of laboratory, is one of the biggest testing facilities of its kind within India, facilitating physical as well as chemical testing.
With the latest technology and equipment, the laboratory offers a full range of physical, functional and chemical testing from raw materials to finished products against the requirements of numerous standards and regulations. In addition, the laboratory is equipped to handle tests for the detection of restricted substances. With these improved facilities, SGS is able to offer faster turnaround times for clients and enhance its presence in the consumer and retail sector.
Located in Gurgaon, India’s sourcing hub, SGS’s new laboratory is able to service a vast client base spread across north India, and to benefit from the area’s connectivity and transport network due to its proximity to Delhi. So customers have access to world class state-of-the-art laboratory services within their vicinity.
The laboratory offers a comprehensive range of services include auditing, inspection, and testing spanning all segments of the textile and footwear supply chain.
SGS also has laboratory facilities in Bangalore, Chennai and Tirupur.
India’s textile industry has seen continuous growth in production and exports. Increasing production has led to a rise in textile exports to developed countries as well as a spurt in demand for inspection and testing services.
E-commerce growth buoyed an otherwise disappointing quarter and first half of the year for American retailer Chico’s. Comparable store sales, which for Chico’s include e-commerce, dropped 3.1 per cent in the second quarter and 3.7 per cent in the first half of the year.
Total sales declined 7.3 per cent year-over-year in the second quarter and 7.6 per cent for the first six months of 2016.
New positions were added in the quarter in key areas such as digital and business analytics. Some of those positions were filled in-house, and others are still waiting to be filled.
Chico’s web sales rose two per cent in 2015 compared to 2014.
Chico’s isn’t the only apparel merchant in the US whose online sales are growing while sales offline and companywide decline. For the second quarter, youth apparel merchant Abercrombie & Fitch saw a 4.2 per cent decline in total sales amid a 4.9 per cent jump in e-commerce sales. For Guess e-commerce sales in the Americas grew 4.9 per cent, while store sales fell 3.1 per cent.
Macy’s posted double digit gains in online sales in the second quarter amid a 3.9 per cent decline in sales companywide.
The web last year accounted for 17 per cent of total apparel sales in the US, up from 14.8 per cent the previous year.
