Turkish investment in Serbia is expected to grow in the short term as the country offers the best conditions for foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Western Balkans. The Balkan country is offering financial incentives, such as government subsidies, as well as a prime strategic position as a link between southern and central Europe and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, says Aleksandar Medjedovic the chairman of Turkey.
Currently, 12 or 13 Turkish companies operate factories in Serbia and their number is expected to double by the end of the year, as Turkish knitted fabric and knitwear manufacturers are being urged to set up manufacturing plants in Serbia.
Nis and the surrounding region has attracted a growing level of investment from foreign textile firms in recent years with manufacturers attracted by financial incentives, such as government subsidies, as well as its strategic position as a link between southern and central Europe and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe.
Turkish investors began looking at the Serbian market five years ago, when some companies opened factories in southern Serbia, mainly in the textile sector, and interest has been constantly growing, Medjedovic stated during the Vienna Economic Talks forum in Belgrade.
Most recently, Aster Textile, one of the largest and fast growing knitted jersey and woven womenswear, menswear and childrenswear producers in Turkey, invested €7.2 million on a new plant in the southern Serbian city of Nis. Of the total €7.2 million investment, €2 million was funded by State Aid. The site employs 250 people although this number is expected to rise to more than 2,000 over the next three years.
Aster stated that that within three yearsit would be producing garments worth around €60 million of women’s and menswear per year for some of the world's leading brands.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is looking to provide same and next day deliveries to more than 600 million mainland Chinese consumers, with the opening of its own flagship online store on JD.com on Thursday.
That launch comes nearly a year after Walmart and JD.com, China’s biggest online retail service provider by revenue, formed a strategic alliance and more than a month since Walmart’s British supermarket chain Asda opened a store on the same platform.
Ben Hassing, the senior vice-president of e-commerce at Walmart China, stated thatWalmart is committed to providing the most trusted retail experience to consumers in China.
It assured mainland customers they would be buying only authentic, quality goods with categories including food, consumables, general merchandise, toys and apparel since all items are sourced through the same supply chain system that Walmart China’s network of stores use.
Walmart have made a US$50 million investment last October in New Dada, the joint venture between JD.com and delivery specialist Dada that operates the mainland’s largest on-demand logistics and online-to-offline grocery platform.
By the end of March, New Dada had partnered with 80 Walmart stores and 165 Yonghui Superstores to provide consumers with one-hour home delivery of groceries ordered through the JD Daojia Dada app. JD.com invested 4.3 billion yuan (US$624 million) to acquire a 10 per cent stake in Fuzhou-based Yonghui in 2015.
JD.com had 236.5 million active customer accounts at the end March. Orders placed through mobile accounted for 81 per cent of the total orders fulfilled by the company in the first quarter.
The deeper alliance between Walmart and JD.com could help bolster e-commerce spending on the mainland, already the world’s largest online retail market.
JD.com posted total revenue of US$28 billion last year, compared with rival Alibaba Group’s turnover. On the other hand according to Forrester research Mainland China is forecast to become the first market to reach US$1 trillion in total online retail sales by 2020, driven by a rise in mobile e-commerce transactions.
Collection of expanding fashion brands and retailer's locations across the U.S., is expanding its operations to include a new retail concept boutique in Minneapolis called Union 73. The new retail store opened at the Minneapolis City Centerat 40 South 7th Street, and is prepared to offer trendy, fast-fashion product at affordable prices. Union 73, the chic men's and women's retailer is the brainchild of entrepreneur, Marcus Lemonis, who is the star of CNBC's hit reality series, the profit in which he lends his expertise to assist struggling small businesses around the country.
Lemonisstated that the company is very excited to open the new Union 73 boutique in the beautiful and energetic Minneapolis City Center and its goal is to be the go-to trendy retailer in this community with our ever-changing collection of top quality men's and women's fashions, and we are offering over 1,500 pairs of jeans in all styles, washes and price points to start this new concept.
The 7,000-square foot boutique will feature an extensive selection of denim, jackets, tops, sweaters, dresses and bottoms, as well as a wide range of shoes, accessories and handbags, comprised of well-known national brands. The product base is finely crafted merchandise and the business model is focused on a strong commitment to one-on-one customer relationships.
Stephanie Menkin, president of the Marcus Lemonis Fashion pointed out saying that they are thrilled to introduce Union 73 to the fun, fashionable and diverse consumer base in the greater Minneapolis area, with affordably priced apparel for our transient consumer. The company is looking forward to offer monthly sales promotions for the customers and adding to overall growth as a company, with additional locations of Union 73 already in the works in Jacksonville, and Chicago.
Italian mill Berto is working to ensure that its manufacturing practices achieve sustainable products. With 130 years of business under its belt, Berto has proved to be a sustainable player in the denim market.
For autumn/winter 2018, Berto is offering bio eco denim, a collection of denim made with GOTS-certified organic cotton and GOTS-certified organic indigo dye.
The organic cotton is grown using methods with a low environmental impact. During the cultivation of organic cotton, neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers are used. The cultivation process also requires a lower amount of water and helps prevent water contamination.
The organic indigo dye used in the collection stems from the processing of the leaves of the plant Indigofera Tinctoria. The cultivation of these plants occurs to the total exclusion of harmful chemicals. The indigo dye is extracted from the leaves through a process of bio-fermentation in water.
Berto is one of Italy’s premium fabric manufacturers. It operates a 100 per cent Made in Italy production chain.
Berto doesn’t use standard equipment. The machines are specially designed together with suppliers to ensure optimal performance. For selvedge denim, Berto even travelled back in time to find the perfect looms. All the blue selvedge fabrics are woven on Belgian Picanol shuttle looms from the 1950s. The looms were bought from a certified supplier and have been carefully restored and are constantly maintained to ensure the highest level of performance.
For online retailers like Amazon, that means a limited share of the profits though it is seriously looking at whether technology can change the fact of the matter. Though online retail is its mainstay, it seems the giant firm is showing a significant interest for the fashion industry as well.
However, analysts in the retail and fashion industry have doubted the ability of the company to seduce the client base considering the company is not what one would call fashion-esque. According to Richie Siegel at business of fashion, the front end experience is not particularly optimized for the merchandising of emotional products while the association with the discounting turns off the luxury form of brands. A number also still question as to whether the site is ever going to have the capability of creating the dream needed to sell top of the line dresses and bags worth a thousand dollars each.
Echo look is a version of the company’s line of Echo branded smart speakers. With the device, the firm is looking to solve the pains of apparel shoppers through making the experience of buying clothes online more natural using personal recommendations and the ability to virtually assess their outfits. It has the ability to place Amazon squarely on the path towards domination of the American apparel industry.
According to the research studies Amazon currently holds 16.6 per cent of the market share for apparel spending by the shoppers who are between 18-34 years. Other firms like the Gap and Macy’s account for 3.6per cent and 3.4per cent of the Millennial’ online apparel spending.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also not afraid to consider long-term strategy when taking on a new market. The market has been salivating over the fashion industry since 10 years ago when it acquired the multi-brand women’swear e-tailer Shopbop.
Amazon also sponsors two international fashion weeks that now have the brands name on their titles such as the Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo or the Amazon India Fashion Week. This year, the company has escalated its efforts by quietly launching private label apparel brands dealing in men’s accessories and women’s dresses and handbags, as well as a recently launched lingerie line at cut-rate prices.
Los Angeles based technology and software company Tukatech is increasing its offerings for the design community. At the recent Texprocess technology trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, Tukatech introduced a new suite of applications, including several patent-pending applications and processes the company says will eliminate sketching and any “misinterpretations” that occur as a result. The software uses existing 3-D garments, real-scale prints, Pantone colors and pattern repeats.
Tuka3D designer edition is a visualization application that allows designers to show their concepts virtually without the need for a pattern. The patent-pending program allows users to virtually build a garment from a library of virtual assets. Users can see print repeats and placements in true scale on the garment body and the final-concept visuals can be presented in a design meeting, used in a tech pack or sent to a vendor for visual reference.
TUKA studio is a suite of print-development applications that can be used with other graphic-design software programs. Users can create and preview repeat patterns, check and change colorways, and separate colors for print screens. There are fabric-texturing modules to create enhanced digital fabrics. Users can create yarn-dye weave patterns and knits, which can be viewed on a design flat or on a virtual garment.
An Adobe Illustrator plug-in allows users to add placement prints to graded patterns that can then be sent to Tukamark, Tukatech’s marker-making software, which configures efficient marker layouts.
Tukatech’s Tukacloud operates as a “Web-based digital sample room,” allowing designers and merchandisers to work directly with vendors and manufacturers. In the cloud, users can access all data exported from Tuka3D and other systems in a central platform. Digital files are stored in a protected platform that allows users to access information from anywhere in the world. The Tukabank is a library of PDF patterns or 3-D virtual style files available for download.
Arne Arens is now global brand president, The North Face. Arne’s passion for and deep understanding of the outdoor marketplace, coupled with his management expertise and operational agility, make him ideally suited to unlock new opportunities and accelerate growth for The North Face around the world.
The North Face is a part of VF Corporation. Since joining VF in 2010, Arne led The North Face brand in Europe, Middle East and Africa, where he oversaw sales, marketing, merchandising, product development and direct-to-consumer activities.
In his most recent role as general manager of the Americas, he managed the brand’s Americas business and strategic initiatives for sales, merchandising and the direct-to-consumer business.
Prior to joining VF, Arne worked at Nike in Europe, where he spent eight years in marketing, sales and category roles. Before Nike, Arne served in consulting roles across a range of industries and geographies.
VF Corporation is an international apparel and footwear company and has brands like Wrangler, Lee.
Meanwhile the corporation has reduced its global carbon emissions by 12 per cent from 2011 to 2015.
VF achieved these reductions while seeing vast expansions to its business, adding more than 500 sites to its global operations within the five-year period – a 40 per cent increase driven mainly by retail store expansion.
Union textile minister Smriti Irani is back on ‘WearHandloom' that has been trending on Twitter. A selfie in a cotton sari, with the hashtag 'Cotton’s-Cool', and asked netizens to post their selfies and tag five friends was tweeted by her on Tuesday. The hashtag started trending, with people still tweeting their pictures in cotton attire.
Irani has kept a low profile in the textiles ministry, her Twitter campaigns seem to be a hit, enforcing her image as a social media savvy politician. It's the second twitter campaign of Irani which has managed to get people talking, even as she has consciously stayed away from traditional media, preferring to be visible on twitter and Instagram.
Irani's #CottonIsCool campaign certainly got the attention of twitterati. Following up her selfie with posts in which she termed cotton as a "celebration of Indian summer and the cotton industry", Irani had celebrities and regular folk, not to mention her Cabinet colleagues posting pictures of themselves in cotton wear.
The list had names like Advaita Kala, Amish Tripathi, Rajat Sharma, Gul Panag, Randeep Hooda, Anita Dongre, Vir Sanghvi, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Kaif, Manish Malhotra, Kirron Kher, Hema Malini and Vijender Singh. Those from the government included Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Kiran Rijuju, Piyush Goyal, Manohar Lal Khattar, Swapan Dasgupta etc. Minister for railways Suresh Prabhu and minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha expressed their support as well, with Prabhu calling it his personal choice.
Mothercare reported its latest full-year results and had good news with the second half having returned to underlying profit in its core UK operations. The mother and child specialist’s focus on digital also helped position it for future growth with 41 per cent of its sales now coming online after a 7.8 per cent rise last year.
UK comparable sales rose 1.1 per cent, margin were up 54bps, 70 per cent of the store estate is now in the newly refurbished club format, 10 new website opened around the world and international total sales growth was 10.6 per cent.
CEO Mark Newton-Jones says the company is now in the third year of its turnaround. He further added following a difficult start to the year, the UK recovered in the second half, returning to underlying profit for the first time in six years. International markets showed signs of recovery with strong growth in Russia and Indonesia, and a sales recovery in China, albeit the country is yet to return to positive cash profit.
Digital revenue is currently on a growth trajectory to be over half of its turnover with 83 per cent of traffic coming from mobile. Store numbers are being reduced steadily. Newton-Jones stressed stores still count, outlining a vision that could be repeated across the retail sector as the digital revolution continues.
The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), the apex body representing the entire textile industry in the country, has elected its new office-bearers at its committee meeting held recently. J Thulasidharan, Managing Director of Coimbatore-based The Rajaratna Group of Mills, has been elected the new chairman of the apex body.
Thulasidharan, who was the Vice Chairman of CITI till now, has also served as the chairman of The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA), president of Open End Spinning Mills Association and SIMA Cotton Development and Research Association (SIMA CD&RA). He is also the president of Indian Cotton Federation, formerly known as South India Cotton Association who holds directorship in Coimbatore Capital and Coimbatore Commodities.
CITI is the apex body representing the entire textile industry in the country. Sanjay K Jain, Managing Director of T T, a vertically integrated textiles company (fibre to fashion) having its manufacturing units in various States of the country is the new Vice Chairman. T Rajkumar has been elected the deputy chairman
The recent Calvin Klein campaign featuring Jeremy Allen White in his skivvies has set the fashion world abuzz. But can... Read more
The already fragile global garment industry faces fresh challenges as tensions escalate between Iran and Israel. This adds another layer... Read more
The fashion industry is notorious for waste. Unsold garments and excess fabric often end up in landfills. Fabric stock services... Read more
The 4th edition of the Fabrics Accessories & Beyond Show 2024 (FAB Show), hosted by the Clothing Manufacturers Association of... Read more
The apparel industry in Asia presents a fascinating picture of contrasting fortunes. While Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka have seen... Read more
Roberto Cavalli, the iconic Italian designer who passed away on April 12, 2024, leaves behind a rich legacy. Cavalli was... Read more
In a move towards sustainable fashion, Swedish denim brand Madh has partnered with Italian producer Candiani Denim to introduce the... Read more
Uniqlo's story in China is one of explosive growth. Entering the market in 2002, it capitalized on the country's rising... Read more
Polyester product exports from China, a major global supplier, have dipped in the first two months of 2024, raising concerns... Read more
The cotton shirt, a wardrobe staple for generations, is facing a new challenge: man-made fibers (MMF). This shift in the... Read more