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The Oeko-Tex standard 100 has cancelled the certification of manufacturers of yarn dyed items in Pakistan. This has halted exports worth millions of dollars to different countries, particularly European Union countries. Most Multan-based exporters have had their Oeko-Tex certificates withdrawn. Multan is the export hub of traditional yarn dyed home textile products. Exporters say, their product is in compliance with Oeko-Tex standards.
Consignments ready to be shipped were offloaded due to the refusal of foreign buyers to accept them. Manufacturers say the certification agency must be persuaded to restore product certification for an interim period to clear current shipments and then re-assess or re-audit the units for further certification.
The Oeko-Tex standard 100 is an independent testing and certification system for textile raw materials, intermediate and end products at all stages of production. Examples for items eligible for certification are raw and dyed or finished yarns, raw and dyed or finished fabrics and knits, ready-made articles, clothing, domestic and household textiles, bed linen, terry cloth items, textile toys and more.
All components of an item have to comply with the required criteria. This covers the outer material, sewing threads, linings, prints etc as well as non-textile accessories such as buttons, zip fasteners and rivets.
https://www.oeko-tex.com/.../oeko_tex_standard_100/oeko_tex_standar...
Houston County and Georgia officials have announced that a Germany-based textile supplier has chosen Perry for its first foray into the North American market. A privately held, family-owned company, Sandler AG, supplies textiles to international manufacturers. The company will generate over 140 jobs with an initial investment of $30 million to Houston County.
Sandler supplies nonwoven textiles such as baby wipes and facial wipes to large companies such as Procter & Gamble with annual sales of about $346 million across the globe. Sandler officials had considered about 120 communities for the plant before deciding on Perry. The development authority’s speculative building at 700 Perry Parkway will be occupied by Sandler AG. This includes the land where the spec building is situated.
The company plans to use the entire 100,000-sq. ft. building, to build additional structures. The company’s CEO, Christian Heinrich Sandler stated that establishing a manufacturing plant in the US was one of the most important steps in their history. He added that establishing themselves in Houston County would allow Sandler to answer to the increasing importance of the North American markets and to account for the growing demand from outside Europe.
UKFT & Textile Services Association (TSA) have collaborated to organise a seminar on October 8, 2015 on garment life cycles. A garment’s life cycle is an important factor while designing apparel. Intricate beading, unusual binding methods and delicate fabrics all make an impact on the garment. The seminar would focus on all these aspects.
The fashion industry and the textile care industry can work together to deliver fashionable garments with a long life cycle and reduce problems faced by consumers while maintaining their favourite pieces of clothing. There are five basic wash care symbols that are used on garments throughout the world. Developed in the 1960’s, the symbols are designed to be understood in all countries, irrespective of language.
Billions of garments are used each year, these care symbols are a registered trademark protected in over 50 countries. Use of these symbols in Europe and elsewhere requires a license fee to be paid. The level of the fee varies from country to country but it can be charged per garment and can amount to hundreds of thousands of Euros per year. Speakers Kenneth Cupitt, Guild of Cleaners and Launderers and Adam Mansell, Director of Special Projects, UKFT would explain in detail about the labelling requirements, while advising on how one can save costs.
www.ukft.org
The 14th edition of MarediModa, the underwear and beachwear exhibition will be held from November 3 to 5, 2015 in Cannes, featuring textile and accessories collections. More than 100 European companies will exhibit at the fair, along with a top-level delegation of fast-fashion garment makers from the Euro-Mediterranean area, which are going to offer a qualified alternative to the more exotic productions.
The unique feature of the exhibition this time is new arrangement of the trends area, managed by MarediModa, designed and curated by a team made up of WGSN, IED (European Institute of Design) and David Shah, under the coordination of the fair management. The comprehensive conference schedule will also include a speech by David Shah on ‘Does Sex Sell Anymore?’
Invista, the leading company in the fashion textile innovation will be at the venue in Cannes even this year with its Lycra Xtra Life brand. The 2015 edition of ‘The Link’, the talent hunt contest organised and promoted by MarediModa will witness the most qualified European fashion design schools participate in the event.
www.maredimoda.com
The reason for this pressure, as per Cowen are three visible trends: Amazon will be the largest US apparel retailer by 2017 with its apparel business expected to grow to $52 billion in gross margin volume by 2020, a boon for strong brands but a bad news for traditional retail; major off-price retailers will open at least 2,500 stores in the US by 2020, while major retailers will expand by roughly 875; and spending on fitness-related wearable products will pull see a shift in spending from traditional retail as consumers are expected to spend $15.8 billion on the category by 2020.
Athleisure has taken the centre-stage as fitness conscious consumers are ready to spend on fitness wearables such as athletic apparel and footwear to match. “Price perception data for Nike and Under Armour from the Cowen Consumer Tracker Survey updated through July, further indicates the consumer’s willingness to pay for innovation, performance and newness,” the report says. Price satisfaction scores for Nike and Under Armour are up an average 3 percent over the last year.
Amazon’s apparel strength to impact brick-and-mortar
Though the macroeconomic trends are looking more positive, Cowen said each of the disruptive trends, plus the pervasiveness of high-turn, low cost fast fashion is “impacting apparel business models through a combination of deflationary pricing pressure and increased speed to market and end user which may impact future revenue growth and operating margin expansion.”
Amazon’s projected growth in apparels is expected to grab the market share from traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, and brands will have to closely monitor their relationship with the e-commerce giant. “Global brands that can effectively segment product between their own stores/website, the traditional wholesale partners and Amazon have an opportunity to expand distribution,” the report noted. Some brands, for instance, like Nike, Under Armour, VF Corporation and the North Face, may limit the products they sell through Amazon. “We think that the goods sold on Amazon will be more commoditized products, popular items that consumers can purchase from multiple companies stores and/or websites,” the report noted.
And as for exclusive products, like the current season’s clothing collection or a signature shoe release, will still be done on the brand’s own website so they can control the product display and requisite marketing.
Off-price retailers on the rise, fast fashion wins
The report suggests when it comes to the off-price disruptors, the discount category is experiencing “tremendous” growth in revenue and store expansion and that growth is only expected to continue. Macy’s and Kohl’s too recently entered the off-price race, joining other department stores like Nordstrom and Saks, and the sector’s rise will put added pressure on apparel pricing as the lower-cost formats fight the full-price stores for share of consumer apparel spending.
And fast fashion on the other hand has been the driving force behind the new way of retail and the quick-to-market strategy is helping brands such as Zara, H&M, Uniqlo, Primark and Forever 21 to steal the share held by apparel retailers. All these five fast fashion retailers brought in a combined $68 billion in global sales last year, or 6 per cent of the global apparel market, the report added.
Fast fashion, off-price and Amazon combined, with their promotional or discounted prices, according to Cowen, will “chip away at traditional methods of apparel distribution and exert deflationary pressure on average unit retail as all concepts compete for share of customers’ wallets.”
www.owenandco.com
Exports of raw cotton and waste from India plummeted by 58 per cent during the April-July period from a year before and those of man-made yarn declined nearly 6 per cent during this period. However, some of the other textile segments, such as jute and carpets, performed well during the April-July period with exports of jute growing 13.2 per cent and those of carpets by12.3 per cent, helping the overall textile exports achieve an under 1 per cent rise up to July this fiscal year.
Not just exports, even the production of textiles dropped in July from a year before, while that of garments gained 21.7 per cent during the month, according to the industrial output data. This indicates that not only export demand remains weak, but even domestic consumption is not picking up in textiles, so spinning mills have begun reducing production for the first time in five years. The fact that the government is yet to clear subsidy claims of around Rs 4,500 crore for investments made under the flagship Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme has further added to the woes of textile units.
Meanwhile fall in yuan as well as demand in the China market is hurting the Indian exports since many players heavily depend upon the country for their export share. China is the biggest market for textiles, accounting for over 70 per cent of India’s cotton and 40 per cent of yarn supplies. Experts predict that the Chinese market will witness a further decline in 2015 as well as 2016 putting pressure on Indian companies.
The textile industry is increasingly becoming a strong supplier for automobile manufacturers. Industrial textiles are widely used in transportation vehicles and systems including cars, trains, buses, airplanes and marine vehicles. The term automobile textile covers all type of textile components e.g. fibers, filaments, yarns and the fabric used in automobiles.
Automotive textiles are used widely, from light weight vehicles to heavy duty trucks. Nearly two-thirds of automobile textiles are for interior trims, i.e. seat covers, carpets and roof and door liners. The rest is utilised to reinforce tires, hoses, safety belts, air bags etc.
Lightweight components can strengthen a car’s safety features. A textile layer can be positioned between layers of a car’s bonnet, producing a damping effect in the event of a collision. Integration of micro-electronic components into the fibers will determine future developments in the textile sector. This could help improve comfort and acoustics features significantly as well as help regulate more efficiently the temperature inside of a car.
The use of textiles on a large scale has become more evident in the past years, as fiber-based materials are now also being adopted as lightweight solutions. A number of cars have a body made of this material.
The Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) has been allowed to market domestically developed straight line varieties of BT cotton. This could sharply bring down the seed cost of cotton farmers. Indian varieties of BT cotton will be available at just Rs 150 per kg compared to the Rs 2,000 per kg cost of BT cotton seeds manufactured under license from US-based biotechnology firm Monsanto.
The patent in the US ended in 2012. Since then other countries like Pakistan have developed 31 new varieties of BT cotton States like Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka have reported a high incidence of farmer suicides since the cultivation cost of BT cotton is high and the losses incurred on account of a crop failure are tough to absorb for small farmers.
Some of this could get addressed if the cost of cotton seeds comes down through domestically developed varieties. CICR along with 11 agricultural universities in India has developed 21 varieties of Indian BT cotton and is gearing up to take these varieties to farmers by 2017. Apart from the lower cost, Indian BT cotton varieties can also be reused. CICR conducts basic and strategic research on cotton to improve yield, fiber quality and by products.
www.cicr.org.in/
The 16th edition of Yiwu International Exhibition focusing on textile machinery, will be held from November 30 to December 3, 2015, at Yiwu International Expo Centre, Zhejiang. This is an annual event for knitting and apparel industry. The show offers three theme zones: Knitting & Hosiery Machinery Zone, Sewing & Automatic Garment Machinery Zone and Dyeing & Finishing Machinery Zone. Spread over an exhibiting area of more than 15,200 sq. mt. the event will see about 9,130 participants.China’s hosiery industry
The event will explore various aspects of China’s hosiery industry. Since it is situated at a strategic location of China's development plan, Yiwu is certain to grow into an important trading point in the country. Events and forums will be held simultaneously on industry specific topics and to analyse latest trends in design. Besides, fashion designers from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will share the latest application of textile technology. All this will be showcased through product displays and shows.
Exhibitor Liu Weiming, General Manager of Yiwu Aurora Machinery Co explained that Chinese machinery has reached world-class levels in terms of function and performance. However, there is a certain gap when compared to international hosiery machineries in terms of accessories processing and post-processing. Besides, Chinese machinery is not as stable as global ones as accessories are weak in precision and hardness.
Weiming opines the country’s textile machinery industry is going through the stage of ‘survival of the fittest’. Thus, several textile machinery manufacturers are moving to Southeast Asia and India in search of cheap labour. He believes because of this, those enterprises with quality products, stable performance and advanced technology can survive.
Location, too is another positive factor to introduce them to the world. Aurora has global plans and sold machines to countries, including Russia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Vietnam, etc, which make up 30 per cent of their sales volume. They are hoping to expand exports in coming years.
Upgradation, transformation key to grow
The knitwear and garment industry is now moving towards structural optimisation and wider range of application with rising labour and energy costs. Therefore, knitwear companies desperately need to transform and upgrade their equipment and machineries to meet market challenges.
Nicola Burini, Sales and Service Manager of LGL China (Hangzhou), says they are recognised as a leading supplier of innovative solutions for feeding yarn all across the globe. LGL has come up with an innovative range of electronic yarn feeders for knitting machineries (from circular seamless to socks, and large diameter circular and flat knitting machineries), and waving machineries (rapier, projectile and air-jet). Also, LGL yarn control solutions maintain a programmable constant yarn tension, and can increase performance of machine, increase productivity, decrease the quality of final product and reduce energy consumption with an advance sustainable high performance product. A one-stop platform for the knitting and garment industry, the Yiwu event is set to be one of the biggest trade events in China.
Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) group's sales excluding VAT increased by 22 percent to SEK 132,167 million for the nine months from December 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015. In local currencies the increase was 12 percent. Commenting on the group’s positive performance, Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M said, “So far this year our sales including VAT have increased more than 20 percent – an acknowledgement that our collections are well appreciated worldwide. Our other brands are performing well and are continuing to reach out to more and more customers. For example, COS now has around 130 stores across 27 markets, Monki more than 90 stores in 13 markets, & Other Stories 25 stores in 10 markets and Weekday 20 stores in five markets.” Profit after financial items increased 11 percent. The group’s profit after tax increased to SEK 15,372 million, corresponding to SEK 9.29 per share, an increase of 12 percent.
For the third quarter from June 1, 2015 to August 31, 2015, the H&M group’s sales in SEK excluding VAT increased by 19 percent. In local currencies the increase was 11 percent. Gross profit increased 14 percent corresponding to a gross margin of 55.9 percent. Profit after financial items was at the same level as last year and amounted to SEK 6,936 million. The group’s profit after tax amounted to SEK 5,306 million, corresponding to SEK 3.21 per share.
Sales including VAT in the period from September 1 to September 22, 2015 increased by 12 percent in local currencies compared to the same period last year.
H&M’s first stores in Macau were well received on opening in the quarter. The group continued strong expansion with approximately 400 new stores planned to open in 2015. India and South Africa will be new H&M markets in October 2015. Eight new H&M online markets have opened so far in 2015, all of which have had a very good reception. Switzerland and Russia will become new online markets during autumn 2015.
In the 2015-16 financial year, H&M plans to offer e-commerce in a further nine existing H&M markets and also to open stores in three new markets: New Zealand, Cyprus and Puerto Rico.
www.hm.com
