FW
In Australia’s New South Wales, Southern Cotton’s inning business is a thriving $26 million-a-year business, a contrast from four years ago, when it was hardly anything, but had tremendous potential. The business is also the latest winner of the Regional Award at the 2015 Telstra Australian Business Awards. It won the award for its innovative use of technology and business sense. Fed up with the 800 km round trip to gin their cotton, the business is the brainchild of six grower friends who built their own facility. Directors Tim and Roger Commins, Gerard and John Toscan, Scott Hogan and Larry Walsh established Southern Cotton in 2011.
Nearly 100 local growers use Southern Cotton’s Whitton-based gin today considered a main driver of the region’s rebirth as a cotton-processing centre, serving more than 35,000ha of cotton crops. The facility has a state-of-the-art Radio Frequency Identification tracking system, which gives growers data from the paddock to the finished bale via smartphone or tablet—earning the business Telstra’s appreciation.
Southern Cotton is the only gins in the world to use the technology that captures, stores, and retrieves data on each cotton module to help growers learn more about their crop and help them in farm management decisions.
Besides, cotton-ginning, Southern Cotton, with 50,000 tonnes of cottonseed byproduct processed for livestock feed and cotton seed oil has developed new market opportunities. LPG gas is replaced by stalks, leaves and lint leftover, which are used after processing local cotton, to both power the gin. This produces a high-carbon by¬product that farmers can use to restore soil fertility and carbon content.
The decades old misconception that the LGBT community is not into sports has been busted. The community loves to play, talk about and watch sports. The community also actively supports local professional teams. As LGBT community nights are being organised everywhere—at colleges, minor league and major league sports games, sports apparel is now emerging to support the LGBT community, similar to other community nights that recognise military and children’s charities among others.
Yet, acquiring the necessary licensing to produce sports clothing related to teams can be tricky as everything needs to be checked off. This has to be done before items are produced by approved apparel companies. Located in Westwood, Massachusetts, ’47, is a company that sees a huge opportunity and market for licensed sports merchandise. The company is a licensed partner with the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association and more than 650 colleges.
The company is one year into testing the market for the response on the niche market, LGBT sports apparel. Brian Maurer, a sales representative for ’47 said that the company was still in a nascent stage where the LGBT line of apparel was concerned. They started on a small scale and until now have only produced caps and shirts, he added.
Major League Baseball was the firs that ’47 reached out to and the league first approved apparel for the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees. The popular Night OUT Series of Washington, DC hosted by Team DC with LGBT community nights is held annually with professional sports teams such as the DC United, Washington Nationals, Washington Kastles Washington Mystics, and the Washington Prodigy.
Continuing with its training programs and workshops in the apparel industry, ATDC (Apparel Training & Design Centre), India’s largest vocational training network for the apparel sector organised a three day workshop on ‘Skill Knowledge Enhancement’ aimed at training the supervisors and floor managers.
The workshop was held at ATDC Gurgaon where industry experts guided the participants. Nimish Dave, CEO & Founder, The Idea Smith; Neera Chandra, Consultant; Team of Experts from Shahi Exports under the guidance of J D Giri, Director, Shahi Exports imparted training to the participants. More than 30 participants from various industries of apparel sector attended the workshop. Prominent among them were Blackberry’s (KLPL), Blackberry’s (AVM), Shahi Exports, Gupta Exim India and Panorama Industries.
The training was professionally designed so that the participants could understand their roles and responsibilities and also learn the ‘best practices’ from leading experts of the apparel industry. They learnt that they should focus on productivity, quality and cost, without which, one cannot contribute to the optimum utilization of the resources and growth of organization. Focus areas at the workshop were garment classifications, measurements techniques, fundamental of specs sheets, seam and stitches, industrial engineering basics, workflow in the apparel industry, SAM/SMV calculations, productivity and quality improvement and compliances in the factory.
Darlie Koshy, DG & CEO ATDC & IAM said, “While this three-day training programme has given the impetus for supervisory staff to especially look at industrial engineering, cost saving methods and labour control and motivation, it is necessary that training is taken as a continuous process. We need to train staff at every level including the labour force to become more efficient and productive. He requested the export community to continuously focus on training and retraining for better commitments and for improving competitiveness.”
www.atdcindia.co.in
The fourth international textile and apparel fair 'Vastra' will be held in Jaipur, from September 28-30. It aims to promote India as a prominent sourcing hub and investment destination in the textile sector. The fair is being organised by Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO) in collaboration with FICCI and Union Ministry of Textiles. Around 250 exhibitors, 400 overseas buyers and 60 Indian buying houses are expected to attend the mega fair.
According to Veenu Gupta, Managing Director of RIICO, who is also Principal Secretary, Industries, at the recent Delhi Roadshow, Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) for textile projects worth Rs 2,500 crores were signed. The Vastra fair provides an apt platform for display of latest offerings in textiles, also assisting participants and exhibitors for forming new business relations, exports, partnerships worldwide and locations for setting up businesses in India, among others.
Overseas buyers are mainly expected to visit from countries like Algeria, Australia, Hong Kong, Italy , Japan and the UK. Business worth $85 million was generated during 'VASTRA -2014' held in Jaipur last year.
www.vastratex.com
The issue of improvement of textile industry was recently addressed by the Southern India Mills’ Association. The Association has appealed to the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to take up with the Union government the need for support to the textile industry with an interim package. This will improve competitiveness. T Rajkumar, Chairman of the Association said that the textile industry, especially the spinning mills, in the state is going through recession. An interim package, that provides subsidy for export of textile products, will enable them to increase exports.
In the last 15 years, Tamil Nadu attracted over Rs 1.5 lakh crores investment and is the only State that has the entire textile value chain— from spinning to garment making. They comprises almost one-third of the size of Indian textile industry.
Competitiveness of the industry though, has been affected because of several reasons, such as import and export tariff barriers, pending release of subsidies under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme, import of manmade fibre and yarn, etc. The industry has made an appeal to the State government to reduce VAT on cone yarn to two per cent from five per cent, to exempt cotton and cotton waste from market cess, and draft a textile policy focusing on value addition. The government is already mulling over this appeal.
The Association wants Rs 6,500 crores allocation to clear dues pending under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme, expedite trade agreements with China and other countries, provide an interim package with subsidies for the textile industry, and reduce the excise duty on manmade fibre.
From October 21 to 25, 2015, Moscow will host the fashion marathon -- Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia (MBFW) Season Spring/Summer 2016. Over 70 designers from Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, China and other countries will display their collections at the fair venue, Manezh.
A list of well known designers like Alena Akhmadullina, Viva Vox, Tony Ward Couture, Yasya Minochkina (the Ukraine), Julia Nikolaeva, Laroom, Pirosmani by Jenya Malygina, Igor Gulyaev, Masterpeace by Evgenia Linovich, Julia Dalakian, Yez by Yegor Zaitsev, Goga Nikabadze (Georgia), Dimnew and many other successful designers, will be presenting their collections. Their work has already been acknowledged by fashion communities in Russia and abroad.
The new season will open with Slava Zaitsev’s show. One of the key elements of the foreign program will be premier night of evening gowns by Tarik Ediz brand from Turkey. Among the talented newcomers supported by Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia include: Tako Mekvabidze from Georgia, Ivanova, Eka Balanchivadze from Georgia and Araida, among others.
Young designers Vika Smolyanitskaya, Outlaw Moscow and Ksenia Knyazeva who demonstrated their collections in the presentation-format last season, will début on the runway, this year. Premier collections created by designers who are just starting their careers, will be presented during group shows, competitions and as capsule collections in the showrooms.
Annually, MBFW Russia also hosts shows of foreign designers. This season, the fashion week will present a shows of leading Chinese designers. Participants of the fashion week in the South-East Asia - Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week will show their premier collections for the Spring/Summer Season 2016 on the runway and in showrooms. Presentation of Chinese designers at MBFW in Russia will be held as a part of collaboration of the largest fashion weeks in Russia and China.
The three-year agreement on strategic partnership between Russian Fashion Council and China Fashion Association was signed in 2014. The first event aimed at promoting home fashion on the largest foreign market was marked by participation of Russian manufacturers in Mercedes-Benz China Fashion Week and DHUB exhibition in October 2014 in Beijing.
www.mercedesbenzfashionweek.ru
Popularity of denim on the rise
By 2020, the global denim jeans market is predicted to reach $ 64.1 billion. The main reason for demand is westernisation and changing lifestyles all over the world. Denim is growing in popularity as business and casual wear. Its always in vogue and available in various colours, styles, cuts, etc. Growth is also influenced by economic, social and demographic trends.
The largest market is Europe. Europe and the US are mature markets and one may expect saturation there, yet they hold major share. Asia-Pacific though, is predicted to be the fastest growing market with a CAGR of 9.4 per cent over the analysis period. Growing disposable incomes, rising number of working women, rapid urbanisation, a western lifestyle along with fashion consciousness, have lead to growth in this region.
Pakistan emerges a key player
As key apparel sectors, denim drives apparel exports. Earlier the US was the prime producer of the fabric. However, now, with countries such as India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan in the fray, denim no longer remains an American product. Besides, global players in denim are faced with a different market situation today, which doe not allow them to hike consumer prices. Thus, they have to absorb the price increases from denim fabric producers worldwide. In such a scenario, Pakistan has emerged as a major supplier of this highly in-demand fabric, because of the competitive prices and in-house innovations by denim manufacturers in the country.
In less than 10 years, Pakistan has become the denim hub and is considered a leading supplier of quality fabric to the world’s top brands. In Pakistan there are about 40 players in the denim industry. They produce about 50 million sq. mt. of finished denim fabrics monthly. Besides, denim fabric exports are constantly on the rise. India, Colombia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Srilanka, and Italy, are major markets for denim fabric exports from Pakistan. India, in particular is becoming a key market. In 2013-14, the quantity was about 7.31 million mt., which may be small, but indicates the potential of the Indian denim market. It looks like it will become more important in the coming years.
Pakistan’s premier industry, textiles, appears to be in trouble, according to a fact-sheet released by the Institute of Policy Reforms (IPR). If corrective measures are not taken by the government by end of August, the Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has threatened to go on a strike.
According to the fact-sheet, though the APTMA has had privileged access to the corridors of power and enjoyed special treatment, it has failed to convince the government to take steps to revive the industry. A full-fledged Ministry of Textiles and a Textile Policy has been announced for the period, 2014 to 2019. Yet, the industry appears to be in trouble due to neglect and lack of implementation of the Policy. Over 60 per cent of the output of the textile sector is exported stated.
From 2001-02 to 2010-11, textiles exports recorded a high 10 per cent growth annually. Since then they have stagnated at under $14 billion. Pakistan, since the last four years, has been steadily losing market share to competitors. There are two policy options recommended by the IPR in its fact-sheet. The government should do away with its stubborn policy of maintaining nominal exchange rate and adjust it downwards, at least to the extent of rise in costs due to recent tax moves and pricing of electricity.
However, if the government does not want to do away with its present exchange policy, then it may opt for an export rebate scheme covering most exports, similar to the issuance of scrips in India. Depending on the extent of value-added, the rate could be varied, with the average at 4 percent of the value of exports.
Fabrics from unwanted clothes will be recycled into new ones. The aim is to reduce the environmental impact of fashion industry by limiting waste that goes to landfills and saving on natural resources used in the production of fabric. This initiative is part of the company’s goal of creating a closed loop for fashion.
Swedish company H&M, is presently able to use 20 per cent recycled cotton from collected clothes. It is investing in new technologies to increase this share. It has a target to increase the number of garments made with at least 20 per cent recycled fabric by 300 per cent compared to 2014.
The new range will include denim pieces made from recycled cotton and organic cotton, including three styles of jeans for women, from skinny to distressed girlfriend jeans, plus a denim jacket, flared dungarees and a denim jumpsuit. For men, there is a zip-up denim jacket, alongside two distressed slim leg styles, and a pair of joggers in coated denim.
Since 2013, H&M has collected 14,000 tons of clothing globally through its clothing take-back initiative. The company will launch a new range of 16 denim styles in September which use recycled cotton from textiles collected through its garment take-back initiative.
www.hm.com/
Top textile manufacturing companies are filing applications to secure patents as they look at growing their business overseas amid low consumer sentiment and slow economy. These companies are investing in research and development (R&D) to innovate and grow their business to the next level. Patents assist in providing longevity to their innovations with fakes easily floating in the market affecting companies’ profitability. Welspun India, manufacturer of towels for Wimbledon, for instance, has applied for six patents in Europe, the US, Brazil, China, Korea and Australia for its creations such as natural finish fabric, ergonomics mattress pad and eco-dry towels that use little water during washing.
Welspun has already got patents for Hygrocotton that has a hollow core for fluffiness, temperature control and moisture wicking, from the UK and the US in the past two years. Indo Count Industries too has applied for patents mostly in the US and it has received one patent last year.
Stakeholders have realised that innovation is a key to growth and for that they must invest in R&D. Experts say companies have been trying to create unique products after the abolishment of the global textile quotas in 2005. The government’s technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS) further helped them focus on installing new technology.
Welspun spent 5.4 per cent of its latest net profit on R&D, while RSWM—a supplier to some of the old established brands such as Raymond, Siyaram, Bombay Rayon, Arvind, Raymond UCO Denim, invested 12 per cent of its latest net profit into R&D.
