Recession and deteriorating economic conditions have led to closure of 30 per cent of Egypt’s textile factories, says MP Enas Abdel Halim. As per the Middle East Monior, the remaining factories had reduced production by 50 to 70 per cent.

Egypt had about 1,260 spinning, weaving and dyeing factories registered in Mahalla, but now only 320 factories are operating, employing 120,000 workers.

Halimwarned the government against neglecting this issue, while calling for the Minister of Trade and Industry, NevinJama, to be questioned in parliament about the recent deterioration in the textile sector.

Egypt's unemployment rate rose to 9.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2020 compared with 7.5 per cent a year earlier, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the statistics agency CAPMAS revealed in August.

Ready-to-wear event Who’s Next had already cancelled this year’s January edition, and must now also give up on an event organised jointly with Première Classe at the Tuileries Gardens in Paris

As a result, Who's Next will not be held this season, while accessories show Première Classe will take place, but in reduced format. The next edition of Première Classe will be held exceptionally at the WSN headquarters, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, as a highly exclusive physical showroom.

The showroom will be open for four days, from March 5 to 8, featuring about 40 fashion accessories exhibitors and a few ready-to-wear labels, with names like Inouitoosh, April Please, Paraboot, Be Parisian, Macon &Lesquoy, Herbert Frère Sœur, MaisonBoinet and Ubac Shoes.

WSN is now hoping to be able to return to the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in early September with Who’s Nextand at the Tuileries Gardens in October with Première Classe.

The Welspun Group has partnered Res.Q, a cutting-edge shopfloor process digitization solution to create a digital factory floor. Welspun will start digitization process with quality management module which is Res.Q | QMS.

According to Res.Q, the textile business of Welspun group began their search for a Quality Management Solution for Anjar, Gujarat facility. Their search criteria included an agile, user-friendly and a real-time tool in order to make data-driven decisions.

Res.Q’s installation at Welspun is the first deployment being executed 100 per cent remotely by the Team of Engineers at Res.Q, effectively showing how simple the solution is to deploy. The project is being undertaken in the midst of a global pandemic, limited travel. The company hopes to deliver value while working totally remotely, said Thushitha Kularatne, CEO, Res.Q.

After having excelled in the fields of IT and pharma, Telangana has now set its sights on the textile sector. The state aims to create an end-to-end value chain for the industry to boost its prospects, says a Times of India report. One of the state’s plan is to set up the country’s largest textiles park — Kakatiya Mega Textile Park (KMTP) —over 1,200 acre for offering a complete manufacturing ecosystem for the textiles and apparel industry within its premises.

According to Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, IT & industries, Telangana, the state has acquired the required land for the project and is currently developing its infrastructure. It has also allotted 350 acre to two companies, Youngone Corporation and Ganesha Ecosphere. KMTP will also set up plug-and-play infrastructure for local weavers and textile manufacturers and a common effluent treatment plant. It will set up training centers in Warangal and its catchment villages to train the local population.

The state government also plans to set up country’s first technical textile testing lab with the help of the Centre at KMTP this year. The lab will be set up with an investment of Rs 150 crore.

The Monforts Advanced Technology Centre in Monchengalbach, Germany received 36-roller raising machine manufactured in 1918. Introduced by Monforts, the raising machine proved to be a revolutionary product in the 19th century as it used low friction ball bearings for its raising rollers. This reduced the wear and maintenance of the raising rollers.

Despite current travel restrictions, the Monforts Advanced Technology Centre (ATC) is fully operational for industrial-scale trials and is run by highly experienced staff on behalf of customers. Since its opening in 2013, the technology centre has invested over €3 million in equipment. Spread across 1,200 sq m, the centre houses two full finishing lines, engineered to accommodate an extremely diverse range of processes based around the industry-leading Montex stenter, in addition to a Thermex range for continuous fabric dyeing and the newly developed CYD process for yarn dyeing.

As per a Brightpearl survey, over 37 per cent of fashion brands plan to close stores across the globe this year. Around 56 per cent of retailers will shut their physical stores while 66 per cent of shoppers don’t plan to visit a mall in the next year.

One in five retailers plan to move their stores from major city centers and into local neighborhoods within the next 12 months. However, around 58 per cent retailers expect their e-commerce operations to fare much better than the rest of their business in the next 12 months.

These retailers plan to ramp up their digital operations over the next year to meet growing demand. Technically savvy companies plan to add local collection points to their online delivery, capitalizing on customers' increased preference for local shopping. Brands that are prepared to adapt to this once in a generation retail transformation will prove to be successful in the long-term, says the survey

German sportswear maker Adidas AG plans to sell its underperforming brand Reebok, 15 years after the US fitness label was bought to help compete with arch-rival Nike. Adidas will divest Reebok as a part of a five-year strategy it plans to present on March 10. It will report Reebok as a discontinued operation from the first quarter of 2021. It will either spin off Reebok as a stand-alone public company, or sell the brand to private equity, another major sports retailer or a multibrand player like VF Corp.

The company bought Boston-based Reebok for $3.8 billion in 2006 but its sluggish performance led to repeated calls from investors to dispose of the brand. The brand’s net sales fell 7 per cent in the third quarter of 2020 to €403 million after falling as much as 44 per cent the preceding quarter. In 2019, Adidas wrote down Reebok's book value by nearly half, compared with 2018, to €842 million.

Analyst believe Reebok's recent collaborations with celebrities like Cardi B and a refreshed focus on women's apparel have put the brand in a better place.

A major textile and garment hub, Punjab has slipped to the seventh position in volume of net exports in the sector in 2019-20. As per Ministry of Textiles, Punjab exported textiles and garments worth $1,509 million in 2019-20. The state was preceded by other states such as Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Industrialists warn Punjab’s position may slip further if the Centre and the state government keep turning a blind eye to the problems of garment and textile industry. Harish Dua, Executive Council Member, Apparel Export Promotion Council opines, at one time Ludhiana was the number one garment manufacturer in the country, but due to the apathy of the successive Central and state governments, its position was taken over by other states. Dua believes one of the biggest hurdles for Ludhiana's garment exporters is huge expenditure incurred on outgoing freight till the ports as compared with the other states. Manufacturers have been demanding freight subsidy for garment exporters of Punjab since many years.

Vinod Thapar, Chairman, Knitwear Club, advises the Centre and state to come together and introduce a tailor-made technological upgrade scheme for the state, under which it should be given financing at 0 per cent rate for purchase of machinery.

However, Narinder Mittal, General Secretary, Ludhiana Business Forums says, textiles is a vast term that includes a wide product range, including denims, carpets, saris, home furnishing and specialised fabrics. However, Punjab produces nothing of this sort and therefore lags behind other states UP and Gujarat. He urged the state and central governments to take steps to uplift the garment industry of Ludhiana.

As per a study by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), the prices of Bangladeshi apparel items have fallen sharply compared to the Vietnamese products in the EU and US markets. The price of 100 kg of made-in-Bangladesh cotton fiber T-shirt declined by 1 per cent year-on-year to €1,091.5 euros in 2020. However, the price of the same product made in Vietnam rose by 3 per cent to reach €2,157.9.. Similarly, the price of each 100 kg of women or girls' cotton fibre pullover made in Bangladesh decreased by 7 per cent year-on-year to €1,329.5 in 2020 whereas the price of the Vietnamese ones stabilized at € 2,157.8.

The prices of each 100 kg of Bangladeshi man-made fibre pullovers for women and girls fell by 6 per cent to 1,319.4 euros from 1,409.6 euros in 2019 at the EU markets. However, the Vietnamese variant has seen only a 3 per cent year-on-year price fall, hitting 1,906.2 euros in 2020.

In the US market, the price of a dozen of Bangladeshi T-shirts made from cotton fell by 20 per cent to $17.99 in 2020 from $22.43 in 2019 while the price of the same product made in Vietnam declined by 17 per cent to $31.9 in 2020 from $38.2 in 2019.

The price of a dozen Bangladesh made sweaters and pullovers declined 2 per cent to $39.31 in 2020 from $40.23 in 2019. The price of a dozen of Bangladeshi manufactured trousers for women and girls made from cotton fibre declined by 12 per cent to $64.17 in 2020 from $72.88 in 2019 while its Vietnamese variant has seen only a 6 per cent price fall, reaching $84.6 in 2020 from $90.5 in 2019.

Bangladesh's export performance was driven by both volume and value factors, according to the CPD study. Exchange rate management is emerging as a key factor, driving export competitiveness, it said.

The CPD also said the export target set for fiscal 2021 to achieve 21 per cent growth over fiscal 2020 will not be achieved.

As per a report by Unicommerce and Kearney, India’s e-commerce order value and gross merchandize value grew by 36 per cent and 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2020. However, the average order value was 5 per cent during the quarter as compared to the same period last year.

Backbone of the retail industry

The last quarter of 2020 reflected the changing consumer behavior and traced the consumers shift from physical to online shopping. During this period, e-commerce emerged as the backbone of the retail industry, with its growth accelerating due to COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns. The sector is currently growing at a CAGR of over 20 per cent annually. Sales volumes in these sectors have grown 95 per cent and 46 per cent Y-O-Y respectively.

F&H emerges as the fastest gsrowing sectors

With value growth of 94 per cent in Q4-20 compared to the same period last year, FMCG & healthcare (F&H) is one of the fastest-growing categories. Strong growth in the value of this sector is supported by 46 per cent order volume growth in Q4 2020.

The electronics segment witnessed 12 per cent YoY growth in AOV in addition to 27 per cent YOY growth in volumes and continues to drive the highest share of the e-commerce value. On the other hand, the fashion and accessories segment reported 37 per cent YOY volume growth. However, the sector’s AOV declined by 7 per cent YOY in Q4-2020 as compared to the same period last year. The growth of this sector is supported by the purchase of lower value products such as comfort wear and loungewear.

Growing contribution of Tier II and III cities

With e-commerce companies focusing on Tier II and III cities, the contribution of these cities to the overall e-commerce sector continues to increase gradually over the last few years. During the last quarter of FY2020, sales from smaller cities grew a whopping 90 per cent in both volume and value. As a result, the volume share of these cities grew to 46 per cent from 32 per cent and value share grew to 43 per cent from 26 per cent during the Q4 CY2020 as compared to the same period last year.This growth was supported by factors like the rising adoption of social commerce, faster and timely deliveries, vernacular content and greater internet penetration with growing adoption of digital payments.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies are also helping brands to develop a strong bond with consumers. These brands e recorded strong volume growth of 94 per cent which showcases their immense future potential.