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Mothercare, the global retailer for parents and young children, is constantly increasing its sourcing from India. Best Corporation from Tirupur, is one of the leading suppliers of the company. Best has been working with Mothercare for the last 17 years. Every year Mothercare increases sourcing from Best by 20 per cent. Among from Tirupur, Mothercare has suppliers in Delhi and Bangalore.
Mothercare sources from approximately 500 factories around the world. China, India, Turkey, Bangladesh and the UK account for 89 per cent of its production sites.
Mothercare is a 50 year old British brand. It is the leading specialist retailer of products for mothers-to-be, babies and children. Mothercare offers a wide range of maternity and children’s clothing, prams, push chairs, furniture and home furnishings, bedding, feeding, bathing, travel equipment and toys. It is the worldwide category leader in fashion products for newborn, babies and toddlers. It is present in over 56 countries with more than 55 franchise partners. There are more than 1500 stores worldwide with more than 100 stores in India. Nearly 40 per cent of its UK stores have now been revamped.
Mothercare designs and develops new products to meet customers’ needs and provides services, help and advice across the whole range of issues that parents face.
As per Cotton Council International (CCI) president Keith T Lucas, the US wants to double its cotton exports to Bangladesh over the next five years. Lucas says this is possible as Bangladesh is the number one importer of cotton now. Currently, the US exports 160,000 bales of cotton in a year to some Bangladeshi spinning mills, which is only 3 per cent of the total consumption of cotton by the country in a year, according to Bruce A Atherley, executive director of CCI, the export arm of National Cotton Council of America. Atherley and Lucas were in Dhaka recently to attend a seminar on cotton.
Atherley said that if Bangladesh’s garment exports increase at the targeted rate of 12 per cent, the country’s cotton consumption will increase by 10 per cent. Cotton consumption in Bangladesh has been increasing because almost all globally renowned apparel retailers like H&M, Zara and Walmart purchase garment items from here in bulk, he said. With higher demand for garment items from international retailers, the backward linkage industries like spinning, dyeing, finishing, weaving and printing industries have developed lots in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, local spinners can meet 90 per cent of the demand for raw materials by the knitwear sector and the weavers can supply 40 per cent of the demand for woven sector, according to industry insiders.
Invista, promoters of the Lycra brand and one of the world’s largest integrated producers of polymers and fibers, will begin rolling out of next generation of Lycra Sport Technology at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 3-6, 2016.
This ‘next generation’ Lycra Sport Technology is scientifically engineered to deliver exceptional comfort, fit and support to stretch activewear. The new platform combines the proven stretch technology of Lycra fiber with demanding testing standards that measure fabric performance descriptors on a simplified 1-10 scale of three indexes.
The overall index approach to Lycra Sport Technology covers the broad spectrum of fabrics, helping to assure comfort from soft control, yoga-type applications to high compression applications such as running and cycling. Lycra Sport Technology can also be combined with other Lycra brand technologies, like Lycra Black Technology, to offer additional performance benefits for enhanced consumer value.
The new Lycra Sport platform also offers mills a simplified fabric certification process, enabling clients to access hang tags and other promotional materials. Lycra brand hangtags are designed to drive sales by clearly communicating fabric benefits and the quality assurance the Lycra brand name offers consumers.
A swimwear and lingerie show was held in Miami from July 16 to 19. The show had a strong participation of premium beachwear and accessories brands and Brazilian brands. Beachwear fashion companies closed deals worth $3, 72,000 with forecast sales of two million dollars for the next 12 months. Adriana Degreas, which is one of the leading luxury beachwear representatives in Brazil and a favorite with celebrities, presented its summer 2017 collection at the trade show.
For Sauipe Swimwear, the participation in the trade show turned to be very positive. The results were better than it originally expected. Existing customers returned and placed bigger orders, and the brand opened new accounts. This year, Sauipe structured the collection more efficiently, which promoted better sales and resulted in a more impacting presentation of the clothing. Sauipe managed to make better quality contacts with relevant stores for the company’s items on the market.
Another Brazilian company, Despi, saw the trade show as the best opportunity to showcase the collection effectively to a large number of potential buyers. It had a high level of attendance among customers, who have been buying from it each year, and it signed other new business deals.
Spinning units of Indore, region are shifting to man-made or blended fibers, unable to pass on the price rise of cotton to customers due to lackluster market. Shift of spinners from 100 per cent cotton to polyester and viscose is likely to help them restore margins and profit and rule out the option for a production cut.
These spinning units have been blending cotton with polyester and viscose after cotton prices rose steeply due to restricted supply and lower output. Spot cotton prices in local market have risen to over Rs 129 per kg from Rs 98 per kg in April, according to local traders.
There are about 40 spinning units in MP and the units with the capacity of 1 lakh spindles requires around 450-500 bales of cotton per day. Cotton production in 2015-16 (crop year October- September) fell to 352 lakh bales (170 kg each) compared to 380 lakh bales in the previous year.
Viscose Staple Fiber (VSF) based apparel exports have grown at a compounded annual growth rate of 27 per cent during financial year 2014 to 2016. Supply of cotton has squeezed in the local markets further pushing the prices while the arrival from the new crop is expected only by October. According to industry players, cotton prices are unlikely to come down before the month of October.
Textured Jersey Lanka’s well diversified business with big clients in the United States has helped it weather the downturn in European demand. TJL is a Sri Lankan fabric manufacturer. It managed to reduce energy costs to help counter eroding competitiveness against other origins with cheaper labor and power costs.
The company’s commissioning of its own coal power plant has helped reduce energy costs. Other initiatives to enhance profitability in the near term include continuous focus on enhancing efficiencies and increasing value addition to products to offer more customised solutions. TJL expects its focus on technology and expansion as a regional player to be key solutions to meet rising labor costs, in order to sustain growth in the near to medium term future.
Sri Lanka’s reputation and track record as an investment friendly destination, and as a manufacturer for a large number of the world’s leading apparel brands, continue to make it an attractive destination for inflows of new investments by overseas apparel manufacturers. But the country’s high labor and energy costs continue to be a challenge which dampens its cost competitiveness for all manufacturing industries. Its global competitiveness as a manufacturing destination is being challenged with the opening up of new destinations such as on the African continent, and some South Asian and East Asian nations which enjoy lower costs of production.
ColorJet Group, the largest manufacturer of digital inkjet printers in India is going to participate in the Knit Show to be held at Tirupur from August 7 to 9. The company would be showcasing its direct to fabric digital printing machines using water based pigment inks aimed at green digital printing. Along with, ColorJet it will also be showcasing samples printed on its best-selling direct to fabric digital printing machines; the METRO and VASTRAJET that use groundbreaking and environmentally friendly, water based pigment inks.
Traditionally, printing through all other inks whether through screen or digital, a square metre of fabric consumes approximately 100 litres of water till finishing. Major pollutants in the discharged waste water are highly suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand, acidity etc. The wasted water if not treated properly, pollutes the environment. Water based pigment inks are the answer to the pollution challenges faced by the fabric screen printers of Tirupur and its surroundings.
Incidentally in February 2011, the Madras High Court decreed that all dyeing units in Tirupur would have to shut down for violating pollution norms. They would only be reopened when they implemented zero-discharge protocols in order to protect the surrounding farmlands and rivers, it said.
Fiberweb has received export orders worth Rs 12 crores from the US. The company is pioneer of spun bond nonwoven fabric production in India. About 75 per cent of the products are exported to countries like the US, UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Gulf.
The company has implemented comprehensive quality management systems in all functional areas like marketing, material management, production, maintenance, quality assurance and customer services. The main raw material, polypropylene, is imported from world class renowned producer Exxonmobil.
Fiberweb makes spun bond polypropylene non woven roll goods and products used in the hygiene industry, agriculture crop covers, soil covers, medical and industrial clothing and many other innovative products like bags, pillow ticks and covers, bed covers, curtains, table cloth, garment interlinings etc.
It has three units. One comprises divisions engaged in the manufacture of mono layer and multilayer films for packaging, lamination, masking etc. In the second unit films, garbage bags and carrier bags are manufactured. The third unit manufactures non woven spun bonded polypropylene fabric. This fabric has diverse applications as in baby diapers, sanitary products, crop covers, ground covers, medical made-ups, bed linen, filtration, industrial work clothing, head covers, disposable table wipes and mats.
Inefficient and environmentally unsustainable practices within and beyond factories are severely impacting lives of Dhaka residents and its neighbouring locations, experts say. Underscoring their observations at a IFC-initiated dialogue, they emphasised voluntary actions by the industry and working together towards lowering sectoral barriers. The dialogue encourages the use of environment-friendly goods and recognises the role of the Textile Sustainability Platform (TSP) in promoting sustainable practices in the textile sector in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) has recently launched the TSP which is a national-level dialogue programme aimed at addressing resource use efficiency, and environmental sustainability of the textile sector. The platform also aims to establish the social capital for dialogue between public and private institutions by convening the stakeholders for improving the policy and regulatory framework.
The TSP operates through working groups (WGs) that focus on policy and regulations, voluntary actions by industry, and access to finance. Based on a series of deliberations of the WGs with support from Policy Research Institute (PRI), the platform has proposed several recommendations to the relevant government authorities for their consideration.
Textiles is a crucial sector that contributes approximately 80 per cent of export earnings and employs over 4 million people, the textile sector is also one of the most resource-hungry sectors, and a major contributor to wastewater pollution.
The value-added textile sector in Pakistan has demanded additional duty drawback to compensate the multiple domestic and international negative happenings that have adversely affected dwindling export. As Khurram Tariq, Central Chairman Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PHMA) points out the value-added textile sector is under severe stress particularly due to the unprecedented reduction in cotton production, increase in prices and sudden depreciation of euro and the pound in the wake of Brexit.
He said that due to 34 per cent sharp decline in cotton production this year, prices have also recorded an upward trend in local as well as in international market. And despite the gravity of situation, the government has not taken any remedial steps to compensate the value added textile sector. Increase in cotton prices was the natural outcome of low cotton yield and it has further enhanced the cost of doing business which was already a major problem for exporters in competing with rivals.
Tariq suggested that government immediately withdraw the 15 per cent regulatory duty on import of yarn and duties on cotton to ensure free availability of raw material to the value-added export sector that would enable it to compete with regional competitors and maintain its position in the international market. Similarly, in view of acute shortage of cotton in the domestic market the government should immediately impose complete ban on export of cotton and yarn to ensure availability of raw material in abundance to the value-added textile sector.
