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Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals, is hosting everyday daily “Innovation Sessions” at ITMA 2015, presented by its textile experts, solutions that combine performance, cost optimization and responsible textile production, under the motto-Color enhanced. Performance enhanced. Sustainability enhanced.

 

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Archroma that has 60 per cent of its business coming from textiles is committed for better solutions to offer to industry and brands. Talking about sustainability, BeatePluckhan, Head of Sales Europe/Africa “ Honestly speaking, I don’t think the awareness or quest for sustainability is any region specific, we have equal business spread all across the world in Asia, Americas and EMEA region( European, Middle East and Africa) and we feel that in all the regions sustainability and performance solutions are the need of the hour and future of textiles is more into functional and technical innovations”.

For colour enhancement, It is highlightinghere on two new ground-breaking solutionsat ITMA 2015,EarthColors and Inkpresso. EarthColors is a new range of dyes created from agricultural waste like almond shells, saw palmetto, rosemary leaves, etc. They can be used to provide rich red, brown and green colors to denim and casualwear, whereas Inkpresso, together with a Swiss technology provider,Archromahas introduced for the very first time a pioneering system that will mark a turnaround in the textile digital printing market. Inkpresso claims to change the way inks are supplied to digital printers.

For performance enhancement, Archroma is offering a constant flow of eco-advanced and innovative new process and functional chemicals, aiming at providing solutions that combine performance, safety and low impact on resources,Archroma regularly partners with innovation-driven players such as Schoeller, Sanitized and Cotton Incorporated, to offer textile producers, brands and retailers the latest and best available technologies.

Sustainability enhancement another significant area where brand owners and retailers around the world are taking action to evaluate the environmental impact of textile treatment, dyeing and finishing processes in response to consumer concerns. It is no longer sufficient merely to comply with relevant regulations, Archroma engages itself in favor of a more sustainable textile industry.

SmartRepel Hydro and Zero add on are the other two solutions towards achieving the same goals.

Archroma, brings these solutions on the back of its decades of experience in formulation and technical know-how in dyestuff and pigments. With the recent acquisition of BASF chemicals textile business and 49% of M. Dohmen, Archroma is gaining further strength in particular in the area of printing and automotive.

www.archroma.com

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World Textile Summit, co-located with ITMA 2015, saw participation of more than 150 textile industry leaders, sharing a range of expert insights into the business issues concerning decisions on sustainability in the textile supply chain.The summit had a programme designed to examine how investment in ‘clean’ manufacturing or the use of sustainably sourced materials can help add value to companies at all levels of the supply chain. 

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The summit opened with a Peschka, Director, keynote address by Mary PorterAdvisory Services, at the International Finance Corporation (IF), a division of the World Bank. Porter Peschka explained how the IFC, which operates as the Bank’s commercial arm, assists Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME’s) in developing economies, often providing investment finance where other sources are either unavailable or too expensive. It also provides consultancy to industry and governments on measure to improve sustainability.

The subject of sustainability aligned with the overarching theme of ITMA 2015, which continues in Milan, Italy, until November 19, and the event was structured to assist senior textile decision-makers in formulating strategy. Its elements include the role of sustainability indifferentiating brands and companies, business profitability and security, investment decisions, the circular supply chain, customer acquisition and retention as well as product development

Paula Oliveira, Director, Interbrand, explained how sustainability can deliver a marketing edge by differentiating brands and companies. VivekTandon, co-founder of French private-equity investor Aloe Group, which specialises in sustainable investments and has interests in the fibre sector, gave an investor’s perspective.

 

There then followed a session in which three textile industry leaders gave their first-hand accounts of the advantages of investment in ‘clean’ manufacturing. Maurizio Ribotti, of CanepaSpA (Italy), Roger Yeh, of Everest Textile Co Ltd (Taiwan), andAjay Sardana, of Aditya Birla Group (India), each briefly described their company’s experience and joined an open discussion on the investment case for ‘green’ technology.

 

Christian Dietrich, Director, Systain Consulting, described the response of suppliers to an initiative by a grouping of major retailers to mitigate the CO2 burden of their businesses. Helga Vanthournout, Engagement Manager, McKinsey & Co – an expert on the ‘circular economy’ as it relates to textiles – considered how recycling and reuse of end-of-life products can deliver economic and business value. And developing the theme of materials, Linda Keppinger, Global Materials Director, Nike Inc, reviewed sustainable trends in product development.

 

BurakTun, Director Sales, Menderes Tekstil (Turkey) and Alan Garosi, Global Marketing Manager, Fulgar (Italy) both presented short case study, focusing on their own company’s application of environmentally friendly materials, and were joined on the platform by Peter Waeber, of bluesign technologies, for an open discussion on the strategic choices to be made in material selection.

www.worldtextilesummit.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Levi Strauss & Co. won the first ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award, clinching the ITMA Industry Excellence Award from two other finalists,BertoIndustriaTessile (Italy) and Gebrüder Otto (Germany). Receiving the award at the ITMA 2015 gala dinner on Nov 12, FrankyVangaever, R&D Product Researcher,Levi’s said, "We are very excited to be the first winner of the ITMA award. The success is a testimony of the strong collaboration of two iconic brands – Tonello and ourselves – in pursuit of industry sustainability."

Tonello's technology provided Levi’s an important first step to solving an industry challenge in denim finishing, Levi has started preliminary development work in their Plock facility in Poland, using the Tonello’sNoStone garment washing technology and avoiding the use of pumice stones, as those had environmental, economic and mechanical disadvantages.

Finalist BertoIndustriaTessile is a leading vertically integrated manufacturer of denim products. It leveraged on the Matex Eco Applicator range by ITMA exhibitor Monforts to significantly reduce the amount of liquid needed in finishing denim fabrics, leading to energy savings and a huge reduction in waste water produced.On the other hand, Gebrüder Otto, the other finalist, is a leading yarn manufacturer which implemented Mayer &Cie'sspinitsystems to produce single jersey fabric using up to 35 per cent less energy compared to the conventional process.

Charles Beauduin, President of CEMATEX, who was also on the Industry Excellence Award judging panel, said, "The ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award celebrates the successful collaboration between technology providers and industry users. With both parties working closely together, innovative, yet practical solutions that positively impact the environment and business bottom line can be created. Hence, we hope to continue to encourage more of such industry collaborations.”

For the R&I Excellence Award – Masters category, Jan Vincent Jordan, InstitutFürTextiltechnik of RWTH Aachen University has been announced as the winner.The two other finalists were; Jenifer Schneidereit, HochschuleNiederrhein for her Master's Thesis: 'Sustainable Water Use in Textile Wet Processing: Development of a List of Improvement Measures for a Self-Assessment Tool for Factories', and MoniruddozaAshir, Institute of Textile Machinery and High Performance Material Technology, TU Dresden, for his Master's Thesis: 'Development of Hybrid Woven Structures for Lightweight Applications'.

“China’s textile industry should undergo a transformation since manufacturing there is shrinking. “They have to change their design thinking. It is not enough to copy. Designs have to be original. And this is a long process. It is about thinking from production to design. But it has to be done. Otherwise there won’t be real development. China’s young generation has a lot of potential. They are capable of doing it. We need to encourage them,” Jason Chen, Chairman, Singtex 
 
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Singtex Technical Fabrics launched some new products including special yarn technology. One of them was Super Dry technology from S Café. “S Café is a yarn technologist. We mix coffee ground with polymer, polyester or nylon and spin it. With Super Dry we print and repress the chemicals. When we finish the print on the fabrics, the fabric gives a dry hand feel. The print helps in odour control. The fabric is laminated with PU membrane and ink printed. When you sweat you won’t feel uncomfortable. The PU acts like moisture manager,” says Chris Ching, Senior Manager, S. Café (Singtex Technical Fabrics), elaborating on the fabric properties.

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S Café has won ‘Best Invention Award’ at Geneva Inventions and Pittsburgh Invention Gold Medal Award of Merit. Additionally, it has obtained GRS (Global Recycle Standard) certification by Control Union (Holland base notarisation unit) and Recycled Material Certification by TÜV (Germany base notarisation unit).

Focused on innovative fabrics

Singtex is a $50 million company and has been witnessing five to 10 per cent business growth every year. It is now also expanding into garment production and dyeing. Localised customers according to Ching are now increasingly looking for sustainable products such as recycled polyester or recycled properties in fabrics. “This year, the trend is about sustainability. China has a lot of garment factories. Lot of global customers are jumping into the Chinese supply chain and looking for good products. China will continue to grow though at a slow pace. We have a two or three per cent share in the Chinese market. So far our company has focused on the European and US markets. We have just come to China. Next year we think our share will be one percent more.”

Fabrics is the company’s main business. They are mainly wicking fabrics or laminated waterproof fabrics. “The US has a 50 per cent share in our business and Europe has 40 per cent share. The other 10 per cent comes from China and the Asia Pacific. About 10 per cent of our business is driven by yarn and fibres, the rest comes from fabrics,” he adds.

In performance fabrics, some customers look for more stretch. Fabrics are non-spandex but still have stretch. “We do this by construction or by yarn. If we take out spandex, the fabric can have quick dry and wicking. We make tight fit possible without spandex. Non spandex stretch is growing. This trend can be seen in the US, Japan and Europe,” explains Ching.

Sustainable products in demand

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Reiterating Ching’s opinion that most of the brands are now looking for green products, Jason Chen, Chairman, Singtex said, “The business is about finding a good vendor, good fashion. But the product should be environment friendly. The product should be good for the country, good for consumers and good for the land.”

Many countries, he says, have different groups. “I see competition between groups but the competition should be with oneself. That way you will benefit and your products will get better. It’s about products from a good idea, products from a good design. You develop products from your mind. If you do that you have no competition. For instance, TPP is 40 per cent of the global market and I don’t think it will impact the global business. It’s not a competition but a move from some place to other. One day, sourcing destination may even move to Africa or somewhere else. So it is about being prepared, ready. But it is not about being calculative,” avers Chen.

He feels China’s textile industry should undergo a transformation since manufacturing there is shrinking. “They have to change their design thinking. It is not enough to copy. Designs have to be original. And this is a long process. It is about thinking from production to design. But it has to be done. Otherwise there won’t be real development. China’s young generation has a lot of potential. They are capable of doing it. We need to encourage them,” Chen asserts.

www.scafefabrics.com

Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is looking to upgrade itself. It’s considering strategic solutions for enhancing research and promoting the application of advanced technologies to increase domestic garment businesses’ competitiveness.

Fashion design centers will be set up. National textile brands will be formed to make deeper inroads into international markets. The focus is on hastening modernisation and ensuring sustainable growth in order to turn the textile sector into one of the country’s key industries. Events like the Asia Fashion Summit 2015 and an international exhibition on fashion and materials for the garment industry are being planned. These events aim to help bolster links among Asian textile enterprises, offering them a chance to discuss ways to promote garment exports to other countries.

Trade promotion activities, training programs, workshops and conferences will take place. There will be strong liaising activities with foreign organisations. Vietnam’s garment and textile sector has a goal of generating $42 billion in export turnover by 2020, with a localisation rate of 65 per cent. With this aim there will be more investment in weaving, dyeing, completing products and developing supply chains to increase the added value of export products.

The country’s textile and garment sector has seen fast and sustainable growth over the years.

 

Italy will help Vietnam to open two technology centers for the garment and footwear industries in 2016. Italy wants to help Vietnam improve the performance of garment and footwear sectors. The Italians will equip the upcoming centers with their machinery and technology as well as send experts to train the local workforce.

The centers will be set up at two leading universities. They will receive 15 machines from Italy, which will be used to help train skilled employees for both the Vietnamese and Italian apparel businesses. Italy is Vietnam’s fourth-largest trading partner in the EU, with bilateral trade topping $4billion in 2014, up 17 per cent from a year earlier. As of end of last year, Italy ranked ninth among EU countries, and 28th among foreign investors, in terms of direct foreign investment in Vietnam.

Vietnam and Italy have similarities in small and medium sized business structures and the two countries are discussing options for increasing bilateral trade ties and investment cooperation. Vietnam is among the ten emerging markets Italy has prioritised for developing trade and investment with. Many Italian businesses have plans for long term investment in the Vietnamese market.

Fiber supplier Euro Fibers has been renamed as Prisma. The company is known for high performance fibers like Dyneema, Twaron, Technora, Vectran and Zylon. Rebranding came about because the company is now transitioning to a technology platform with a growing presence and expanding services. It has tripled its coating capacity within a year.

The rebrand is the positive outcome of the company’s broadening footprint in and outside Europe, unprecedented demand, and increasing recognition. The company’s brand Prisma embodies a coating technology that creates innovative solutions to shield high performance fibers. The name Prisma originates from the initial trials conducted when Euro Fibers tried to coat Dyneema fibers. Dyneema is only available in white and with the Prisma coating technology the company can offer it in all colors of the rainbow. The new logo clearly shows all these colors. The stylised shield is a statement in itself with the shield representing the protective features the Prisma coating technology offers to treat high performance fibers.

The new brand identity is a logical step that communicates to both customers and end users that the company continues to provide products and services that consistently outpace its competitors’. With a strong logo, and a clear and distinctive website, the company shows customers why Prisma shielded fibers are the fibers of choice.

India's first industrial hemp start-up Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO), is run by seven twenty-year-olds, who dream of a green world. Hemp, hardly recognised in India, as it is confused with marijuana, is touted to be a billion-dollar industry in the West. Hemp is hardly consumed in India, unlike a small town in Australia that runs entirely on hemp. Locals in north India use it in their food and to make fibres, but that's about it. Sanvar Oberoi, one of the co-founders says, the Textile Ministry claims that industrial hemp fibre can rake in a potential revenue of approximately Rs 240 crore annually.

Several hemp-based products can be found at BOHECO’s office such as a couple of cream canvas hemp shoes that are still in the works, a neatly packaged crisp, white hemp shirt ready for shipment, bottles of hemp seed oil sit beside packets of hemp seeds, etc.

Romesh Bhattacharji, former narcotics commissioner of India and an advisor to BOHECO explained that hemp is created from the stalk and seed and is a non-narcotic and non-excisable duty item, not from the bud and leaf, which are used to make psychotropic substances. Suman Sahai, founder of the Gene Campaign and an advisor to BOHECO says that the long-term solution for integrating hemp is through development of Indian seeds. The first licence to develop hemp seeds in India in partnership with a government entity is bagged by BOHECO. Kotak stated that they would want to have their own seeds by 2017.

Sustainable clothing options are increasing for those dedicated to the cause. Luxury knitwear made from dead-stock yarns, one-of-a-kind pieces from unwanted locally sourced materials, and a synthetic spider silk parka are some of the latest options. The first product successfully made of synthetic spider silk materials is the Moon Parka. It took 11 years, 10 design iterations, and 656 gene synthesis designs to create it. Spiber, the Japanese advanced biomaterials company in collaboration with The North Face, created the prototype outerwear jacket and expects to deliver the final product in 2016. The product was a result of biomimicry and Spiber’s researchers were inspired by the extremely strong and flexible threads that spiders produce with biological proteins. The synthetic fibre used in the Moon Parka, called Qmonos was due to the development of over a decade. It is produced through an industrial fermentation process that involves micro-organisms producing proteins.

Spiber hopes to revolutionise the apparel industry with Moon Parka as a proof of concept for the spider silk fibre and the company has also set its sights on the automotive and medical device industries for future product development. Focussing on geckos’ sticky toe pads to improve adhesives and recyclability, Ford Motor Company’s researchers are also exploring biomimicry for inspiration.

Eleanor O’Neill, the designer with her Study 34 label is doing her part, where she hand-makes clothing using leftover luxury yarn. O’Neill buys the remnants of high-quality yarns disposed by manufacturers if there is not enough left to produce a complete line of garments. She buys in bulk and produces limited knitwear collections.

President John Mahama’s directive on government's policy on Made in Ghana products is being flouted by the Min¬istry of Education according to certain documents. Fabrics being used for government's free school uniform programme for de¬prived pupils by the ministry are being imported from China. The ministry has rendered a contractual agreement with one of the local textile manufacturing companies, to supply the fabric useless with Printex Ghana.

Now, equipment worth millions of dollars, which the company purchased to re¬tool in anticipation of continuous production of the uniforms, lies idle. In 2009, local textile manufac¬turing companies were empowered by the government, by procuring all its fabric needs from local manufacturers. However, it seems the government has abandoned the plan a few years down the line as the local textile manufacturing companies, to pro¬cure the uniforms from China made huge investments into retooling and installing new ma¬chines to meet the new demand.

The Greater Accra Regional Directorate of the Ghana Ed¬ucation Service released sets of uni¬forms to schools in Metropolitan, Municipality and District Assemblies for onward distribution to pupils in the region, recently. This action has resulted in many in the manufacturing industry doubting the government's commit¬ment to grow the local industry if it continues to import cheap fabric from China at the expense of a weak local textile manufacturing industry.

Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour, Abraham Koomson said that the policy to pro¬cure fabrics locally was to help resusci¬tate the local textile industry and to create jobs and the union was seriously disappointed at the development.

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