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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.
Leading private equity firm, Vector Capital that specialises in transformational investments in established technology businesses, has sold Gerber Technology, a leading provider of integrated software and automated systems for the production of flexible materials, to American Industrial Partners.
Headquartered in Tolland, CT, Gerber Technology provides integrated software and system solutions to more than 78,000 customers across 130 countries in the aerospace, construction, furniture, fashion and apparel, transportation, technical textiles, packaging, wind energy, and sign and graphics industries. Its products and services are used by more than one-fifth of the Fortune 500 companies.
In 2011, Vector Capital completed the takeover of Gerber Technology and simultaneously divested Spandex, a non-core distribution business segment, in order to focus on Gerber Technology’s core technology offering. And in the last five years, it has undertaken significant growth and operating enhancement initiatives, including investing heavily in innovation to release new products across the solutions suite, streamlining supply chain and manufacturing operations with the support of Vector Capital.
A textile cluster will come up in Surat on a 50 lakh acre plot.The next step will be garment manufacturing and diversifying into cotton fabrics.
A special purpose vehicle will be employed to invite processing units and meet their major requirements. The cluster will have a common boiler that supplies steam to all units, while provisions will be made for cheaper electricity, soft water, treatment of effluents, etc.
Foreign investors and investors from other states of India have shown interest in establishing units in the cluster.
Surat wants to expand through forward integration. As of now, yarns and fabrics comprise the major production. Now units want to move ahead into garment manufacturing and move ahead from manufacturing just synthetic fabrics to producing cotton fabrics too.
There are about 6,00,000 plain power looms, around 1,00,000 embroidery machines and also 50,000 water jet and rapier looms in Surat. There are also numerous yarn texturising units. Export of synthetic fabrics from the Surat textile industry is around Rs 20,000 crores.
The textile industry in Surat is mainly engaged in the activities of yarn production, weaving, processing as well as embroidery. Nearly 30 million meters of raw fabric and 25 million meters of processed fabric are produced in Surat daily.
Wanting to explore business opportunities in a different sector, a delegation of Pakistani businessmen and exporters are on a visit to Qatar currently.
Made out of businessmen and exporters representing different industry sectors, the delegation of Gujranawala Chamber of Commerce & Industry led by Samee Ullah Naeem will hold meetings with business leaders from Qatar and various other institutions with the aim to find a share for themselves in the local market.
Gujranwala is the 4th biggest city of Pakistan. Over 4,000 members of the Chamber contribute about 80 billion rupees annually to the national economy. In exports, exporters based out of Gujranwala give as much as 1.5 billion rupees which is about 10-12 per cent of the total exports of Pakistan.
There is a huge cottage industry and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Gujranwala. There are about 500,000 families associated with these businesses.
The main aim of exploring this market is to provide the industry here an outlet which it had not been able to explore in the past. From Qatar, the delegation will move to Kuwait.
For an unique presentation, Who’s Next and Premiere Classe are gearing up for their next edition that takes place at the Parisian Porte de Versailles, Paris from September 2 till September 5. Both the trade fairs have welcomed two designers of accessories and seven ready-to-wear designers to showcase their collections by the Maison Méditerranéenne des Métiers de la Mode (MMMM).
Continuing the efforts of last season to help professionals decode the new seasonal trends, Who’s Next has partnered with the Martine Leherpeur Conseil office for the spring/summer’17 trends forum. The living space installed at the show premises will talk about fashion blurring the lines between religious, cultural, musical and urban codes, while also highlighting the increasing merge of masculine and feminine codes for the sake of an ambiguous style for both genders.
Designers who have been selected to participate at the (Re)create project will showcase their final collections made out of reworked recycled garments at the show, too. The initiative aims to raise awareness for the benefits of the up cycling design method, in tune with the eco-conscious movement that is gaining foothold in fashion.
The third edition of The Future of Fashion Program –organized in co-operation with Not Just A Label will start with 30 selected emerging designers showcasing their collections during this edition. The new talents will be judged on their creativity and business capacity to market in the fashion industry, following a selection process which will take the most deserving designers through to two more seasons with three final winners who would be presented in September 2017.
While Who’s Next will continue its distribution in five areas of creation: Fame (200 brands); Private (200 brands); Urban (65 brands); Trendy (65 brands) and Studio (170 brands), Premiere Classe will host 900 brands from the jewelry, footwear and leather goods’ segments.
For the quarter ended June 30, 2016, Indo Rama Synthetics’ net revenues stood at Rs.647.14 crores as against Rs.642.48 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Operational EBIDTA for the quarter stood at Rs 3.95 crores as compared to Rs 32.54 crores for the corresponding quarter in the previous year. The company has reported a loss of Rs 16.56 crores during the quarter as compared to a net profit of Rs.5.86 crores in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
Sales volume for the quarter increased to 84,470 tons as compared to 79,088 tons in the corresponding period of the last financial year, reflecting an increase of 6.81 per cent on a quarter on quarter basis.
Indo Rama is India’s largest dedicated polyester manufacturer. Indo Rama manufactures a multitude of industrial products including polyethylene, polypropylene, spun yarns, fabrics, medical gloves, and fertilizers. It is involved in spinning, weaving and finishing of textiles.
The company was incorporated in 1975. Indo Rama is the largest producer of phosphoric acid and phosphate fertilizers in sub saharan Africa. The company exports to premium customers in North America, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. The company has been listed on the Indonesian stock exchange since 1990.
Readymade garment exports from Vietnam in 2014 were 20 billion dollars, which rose to 24 billion dollars in 2015 and 28 billion dollars in 2016.
China is the largest exporter of readymade garments and basic textiles in the world. Its main exports are clothing and other value-added textiles. In 2014 its textile exports were 254 billion dollars that increased to 264 billion dollars in 2015, but decreased to 254 billion dollars in 2016.
Previously, China was exporting low value-added apparels but when the world's second largest economy lost its market to Bangladesh, India and Vietnam, it shifted to higher value-added clothing.
Indian textile exports in March to April 2014 amounted to 32 billion dollars that increased to 37 billion dollars in 2015 and declined to 36 billion dollars in 2016. India is also a major exporter of basic textiles (yarn and fabric) but is moving up rapidly in the clothing sector. It lost a sizable market in basic textiles but made up the loss by gaining markets in the clothing sector.
Growth of readymade garment exports from India and Vietnam has been bigger than those from Bangladesh, the world’s second largest readymade garment exporter, over the last three years.
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has entered into a partnership with Levi Strauss & Co (, a leading jeans-wear manufacturer, to develop a global programme aimed at achieving environmental sustainability, a company press release says.
The programme will build on the extensive experience of IFC’s Bangladesh Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) programme, focusing on providing advice on implementing cleaner production practices in over 165 textile factories in Bangladesh. This is the first time that the IFC PaCT program will be implemented outside Bangladesh. Initially, a pilot is planned in six facilities in Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam.
Said Michael Kobori, vice president of sustainability, Levi Strauss & Co that the company is pleased to be the first IFC partner to pilot its PaCT programme in additional countries. The goal of his company is to scale the practices globally to achieve greater reductions in water, energy and chemical use across our supply chain.
The global textile sector faces critical environmental challenges associated with water, energy and chemical use that leave a large footprint on the world’s environment. The implementation of cleaner production measures can reduce the use of natural resources, mitigate threats to humans and the environment, and promote greater overall efficiency through improved production practices.
Simple and low-cost measures could reduce water use by up to 20 per cent in factories and lead to savings in future infrastructure and operational expenditure, the release adds.
IFS aims to help Levi Strauss & Co reach this goal through cleaner production assessments and PaCT Advantage, a web-based diagnostic process to develop a roadmap for continuous improvement by suppliers. The results of the PaCT Advantage diagnostics can then be benchmarked across sites and countries.
