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Rachel Lund, Head of Insights and Analytics at the British Retail Consortium analysing latest UK labour market statistics says labour market figures confirm the retail industry is undergoing significant structural change. Despite the fact that the number of jobs in retail during the festive period was higher in 2017 compared to previous year, employment was down by 73,000 compared to Christmas two years ago and by more than 1,00,000 compared to ten years ago, in the midst of the financial crisis.
The reality is the economics of retailing are changing. Over the last two years, taxes on physical stores have grown by an estimated 8 per cent and employee wages by 10 per cent at the same time as overall sales have grown by less than 3 per cent and pounds spent on non-food products in physical stores have fallen by 5 per cent.
As a result, retailers are having to radically rethink how they operate in order to survive, investing more in technology and restructuring their store portfolios and workforce. While the result will raise productivity in the industry, the transition will not be painless and will affect some communities more than others.
Rupee appreciation in real terms has hurt Tirupur’s exporters, making it hard to compete on a cost basis with lower income countries such as Bangladesh. Bangladesh has already signed an FTA with the EU which has given it a 10.5 per cent cost advantage over India. Similarly, Vietnam is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU and is already part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
While Tirupur’s exporters managed to overcome external shocks in the past, and ride through periods of slowdown such as the 2008 crisis, the cause of Tirupur’s pain this time is domestic policy. The combination of demonetisation and a hurried, faulty GST implementation has brought Tirupur to its knees.
Demonetisation completely decimated domestic demand by removing all liquidity from the market. GST has increased costs, not only of compliance but also of materials, services and working capital. Prior to GST implementation, the sum total of export incentives amounted to 13.65 per cent of FOB value. Subsequent to GST, this fell to eight per cent, a steep reduction of 5.7 percentage points.
Tirupur is India’s largest cotton textile export cluster. The tightening of liquidity for exporters has led to a contraction in demand for downstream processing units, leading to their inability to pay back loans on their capital.
A technical textile workshops will be held at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International School of Textiles and Management, Tamil Nadu from April 5 to 8, 2018. It’s meant for textile entrepreneurs in and around Tamil Nadu. Textile industries can work to enhance their products by value addition for the technical textile arena.
These workshops will be a platform to provide technical support, knowhow and the entire necessary infrastructure at one place. The workshops include three phases. The first phase would elaborate on various fields in technical textiles, product development, manufacturing processes and market. The second and third phase comprise planning and executing business plans on the technical textile sector.
Participants will undergo both theoretical and practical training including industrial visits. This sectoral training program will include sessions on medical textiles–products, manufacturing process, technology, machines, standards, market demand and marketing strategy.
Field visits will be arranged for participants to manufacturing and application sites to understand the practical aspects. Participants will also be provided with a questionnaire to conduct a survey at health care centers, medical textile product dealers and end users. Sessions on new product development, brain storming, SWOT analysis, discussions on intellectual property rights and new business startups have been planned.
The sectoral programs will cover agro textiles, home textiles, industrial textiles and packing textiles.
The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers & Exporters Association (PRGMEA) and Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan are jointly organising the three-day 19th Textile Asia 2018 - International Textile, Garments Machinery and Clothing Trade Fair from March 29 to 29, 2018 at the Karachi Expo Centre. PRGMEA chairman (Central) Shaikh Mohammad Shafiq disclosed the fair is expected to host over 2,000 foreign delegates as well as 65,000 visitors from the trade and corporate sector.
The focus is value addition in the textile industry to enhance export of value-added textile and garment products. This three-day trade fair is well known as South Asia’s biggest B2B textile, garment, embroidery, digital printing machines and chemical and allied services fair.
Over 1,000 International brands will showcase their products in 800+ booths and 2,000+ foreign delegates from 27 countries, including Austria, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Japan, Turkey, the UK and the USA, will be present at the event.
Li Yang from the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, China is the Guest of Honour. She is promoting Zhejiang Export Fair in Textile Asia for business, investment and joint venture opportunities. The PRGMEA chairman said Textile Asia is the only UFI (Paris) approved textile trade fair in South Asia which has immense buying selling potential of textile, garment and allied industries and is poised to introduce overseas suppliers of textile and garment materials, accessories and parts and machinery to the textile and garment industry of Pakistan. He complement their efforts for delivering high quality, value added products and promised to assist them in developing their export business.
Nike is the world’s most valuable label, according to Brand Finance’s annual top 50 rankings in apparel. The athletic giant retained its number one spot even after a tough year in North America. Nike is the world’s largest athletic apparel and gear maker. Nike’s gear is widely seen on courts and running trails, but the brand also has remained on-trend as part of the growing consumer interest in athleisure — a term that describes the growing acceptance of wearing athletic apparel and shoes just about anywhere.
However, steep competition to maximize on the sporting apparel trend, coupled with increased choice and information for the consumer could threaten Nike’s future position in the rankings. Adidas (up 41 per cent) played a key role in the struggles Nike has faced in the past two years, with the German-based sportswear brand seeing rapid growth across both sporting and casual categories.
Other notable brands that made the list: H&M, which once again inched past Zara for its number two spot as the Spanish fast-fashion competitor significantly narrowed the gap; Hermès, which overtook both Louis Vuitton and Gucci in the luxury fashion category (with Cartier as the biggest value winner, up 45 per cent); and rival Under Armour, which recorded the largest value drop in the set following its failure to capitalize on basketball shoes and other product verticals.
India has initiated an investigation into the import of jute sacking cloth from Bangladesh. There are allegations this is being done to evade anti-dumping duty on jute sacking bags. India has an anti-dumping duty on jute yarn/twine, hessian fabric and jute sacking bags brought from Bangladesh and Nepal.
The investigation would look to determine the existence, degree and effect of the alleged circumvention by poring through trade data from October 2016 to December 2017 and examine the need to extend the existing duty to the circumventing product.
Until investigations wrap up, Indian importers of jute products have been instructed to give an undertaking of payment of duty if their consignment of sacking cloth is found to be circumventing the existing tariff.
Exports of jute products have declined after India imposed the anti-dumping duty on jute products from Bangladesh. As a result, mills are sitting on increased stockpiles of jute goods. Bangladesh’s exports of jute and jute goods to India fell 18 per cent year-on-year in the July-February period of this fiscal year. During the period, shipment of jute bags fell sharply while exports of jute sacking cloth soared.
India accounted for 15 per cent of Bangladesh's total export receipts from jute and jute goods in the first eight months of the fiscal year.
HKTDC Hong Kong International Home Textiles and Furnishings Fair will be held in Hong Kong from April 20 to 23, 2018. The fair is a dedicated sourcing platform and an information exchange hub for fine home textiles.
Over 290 global exhibitors are expected to present a vibrant selection of textile products. Exhibitors are categorised under seven theme zones to ensure an easy-to-navigate setting and superior sourcing experience.
Hall of Glamour, the premium zone of the fair, will feature high-end, design-led textiles and furnishings. Exhibitors will showcase quality textiles covering bedding, curtains, carpets and towels. Other zones are Baby and Bedroom Textiles, Bathroom and Kitchen Textiles, Carpet and Floor Coverings, Design Solutions and Trade Services, Upholstery and Furnishing Products and Window Fashion and Accessories.
Environmental awareness is on the rise and so is the demand for green products. Consumers particularly in developed markets like Japan, the US and West Europe are enthusiastic about eco-friendly properties of natural fibers. To cater to the surging demand, the fair will highlight environmentally friendly and sustainable products by labelling exhibitors with green products or hotel supplies for effective sourcing.
To facilitate business matching and networking, a series of activities will be held during the fair, including product demo and launch pad sessions, where suppliers can introduce their latest products to buyers in an interactive and relaxing atmosphere
Fespa will be held in Germany from May 15 to 18, 2018. The event showcases solutions for the print industry. It is expected to feature more than 600 exhibitors, and 18,000 visitors who will be able to see latest innovations in digital and screen printing sectors for graphics, signage, décor, packaging, industrial, and textile applications.
Bringing together so many suppliers and innovations under one roof for screen, digital wide-format, and textile printing, as well as signage and non-printed signage, makes Fespa the leading destination event for international print service providers and sign-makers.
Print service providers and sign-makers will also have the opportunity to network with peers from the global specialty print industry. Digital Corrugated Experience will be an experiential area, showcasing the potential of digital print for corrugated packaging and display work. Visitors from converting or box-making backgrounds can learn more about how they can integrate digital print technology into their production setup.
Print Make Wear will offer visitors the chance to find out about the process behind print and fashion. From the initial design stage through to finished garments and accessories, experts from this field will be in attendance to talk with visitors about this creative market.
The main show will once again be complemented by the European Sign Expo, which focuses entirely on the sign-making market.
Big retail chains in the US are struggling with fast fashion. Retailers have spent years cutting costs by moving production to Asia and placing huge orders for merchandise. Currently, they aren't in the best position to make broad changes to their supply chain as consumers are spending less of their income on apparel.
The stakes are high to make fast fashion work. A rapidly changing assortment of trendy clothes helps drive customers into stores, and potentially stave off the encroachment of online retailers. In the last couple of years, people started realizing have to speed up. As consumers jump from one trend (and brand) to the next faster than ever, US retailers are collectively being forced to pivot away from the traditional model, which values low costs above all else. The methods they’ve adopted vary widely.
For now, few US retailers can match the fast-fashion prowess of European competitors such as Inditex and H&M. These companies pioneered the model by taking flexibility to the extreme, via airlifted merchandise, small order sizes and an accelerated design process.
A transition to fast fashion is also complicated by the fact that most US retailers depend on suppliers, while a company like Zara is vertically integrated -- allowing more control from start to finish. That means, for US apparel vendors, the acceleration has to occur across multiple companies.
Bangladesh is looking at revising minimum wages for the readymade garment industry. The last such wage review was done in 2013. The revision will be done by a tripartite wage board comprising the government, representatives of garment factory owners and workers. In reviewing the minimum wage, the board will take into consideration the cost of living of workers, their standard of living, cost of production of factories, productivity, price of products, business capability, economic and social condition of the country and of the localities concerned, as well as other relevant factors.
This time the minimum wage is going to be revised at a time when the country is about to graduate out of the least developed country (LDC) category. As a LDC, Bangladesh now enjoys duty-free access to the EU, where about 60 per cent of Bangladesh apparel is sent. After the graduation, Bangladesh would no longer be able to avail of duty-free access to the EU.
Robots are being programmed with artificial intelligence to improve productivity. If workers are not willing to accept wages based on productivity, garment factories may not remain competitive in the long-run. Owners would have to realise that a productive worker will earn more for them as every cent spent on workers is paid back in return as additional output.
