The second quarter net sales of L Brands, Inc grew by 12 per cent to $2.351 from $1.369 billion for the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Sales of Bath & Body Works during the quarter ended July 03, 2021 grew by 48 per cent to $1.239 billion from $743.5 million sales recorded during the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Victoria’s Secret net sales during the second quarter increased to $1.112 billion from $625.7 million in the corresponding quarter last fiscal. The brand’s comparable sales during the quarter increased by 3 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

The company currently expects to report second quarter operating income of more than $400 million for the Bath & Body Works segment, and more than $200 million for the Victoria’s Secret segment. The increase to the company’s previous second quarter earnings guidance was principally driven by higher than forecasted merchandise margin rates, as strong customer response to merchandise assortments and disciplined inventory management enabled a reduction in promotional activity.

World’s largest spandex manufacturer Hyosung has released the results of a new Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study that compares the environmental performance of its 100 per cent recycled creora® regen spandex to its virgin creora spandex.

The study was conducted by third-party certifier, Networks Y, a Korean LCA consultancy, who performed a carbon footprint calculation - the amount of CO2 emitted from the entire life cycle of a product - of both fibres from pre-manufacturing to the manufacturing stage.

The study concluded that creora® regen spandex reduces carbon dioxide production by approximately 67 per cent or by about two thirds compared to its creora® spandex in the production of 1 kg.

Since the launch of Hyosung’s creora® regen spandex in January 2020, the company has produced an amount of fibre to offset the number of CO2 emissions equivalent to driving 1,000 times around the globe. Similarly, the production of creora® regen has the green-house gas (GHG) absorption impact of enough mature pine trees to cover San Francisco’s Presidio - the world’s largest national park in an urban area spanning nearly 1,500 acres.

Hyosung’s creora® regen spandex is GRS, HIGGS MSI and Oeko-tex certified. The company is in the process of obtaining a material health certificate under the Cradle-to-Cradle Certified Product Standard.

Finnish Circular fashion and textile technology group Infinited Fiber Company has secured investments totaling €30 million in its latest financing round completed on June 30. The round also brought the company new investors, including Adidas, Invest FWD A/S, which is Bestseller’s investment arm for sustainable fashion, and investment company Security Trading Oy. Among the existing investors contributing to this round of financing were fashion retailer H&M Group, who was the lead investor, investment company Nidoco AB, and viscose producer Sateri.

This securement of new funding follows Infinited Fiber Company’s April announcement of plans to build a flagship factory in Finland to produce its regenerated textile fiber Infinna. According to Infinited, the factory, which will use household textile waste as raw material, is expected to be operational in 2024 and to have an annual production capacity of 30,000 metric tonne.

These new investments will enable the company to proceed with the pre-engineering, environmental permits, and the recruitment of the skilled professionals needed to take our flagship project forward. It can also boost production at its pilot facilities so that the company can better serve our existing customers and grow its customer-base.

India’s cotton ending stock is likely to decrease to 75 lakh bales during the present season to September as home demand has picked up. However some experts estimate stocks to remain at 120-plus lakh bales for the season.

Cotton output for 2020-21 has been revised downwards to 356 lakh bales, CCI is expected to have 18 lakh bales by the end of the season, including that many of the gross sales had been meant for home consumption.

Some commerce specialists count on mills’ consumption to prime 300 lakh bales, although Selvaraju, Secretary-Basic Okay, Southern India Mills Affiliation (SIMA) estimates the shutdown resulting from COVID pandemic to decrease the offtake beneath CCPC projections.

In its January 25 assembly, the CCPC estimated home consumption at 330 lakh bales, with mills’ offtake at 286 lakh bales. Consumption of spinning mills is likely to decrease to 270 lakh bales due to lockdown, says a SIMA official

Coloreel has raised $8.14 million in a private placement to existing and new shareholders to support the company’s market expansion and growth and to initiate expansion into new application areas such as sewing.

As per Sourcing Journal, Coloreel’s new technology for digital dyeing of textile thread on-demand gives embroidery manufacturers and fashion designers a number of significant competitive advantages. The technology maximizes the users’ creative potential, while minimizing the environmental impact–higher embroidery quality, no thread waste, no wastewater, creative color changes and freedom in the use of colors, the company noted.

Coloreel has chosen to initially enter into close collaborations with some of the top brands and leading embroidery manufacturers. The embroidery market includes about 8 million installed embroidery heads worldwide. Each of these embroidery heads can be equipped with Coloreel’s technology, the company said.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, Coloreel, with the help of existing distributors, said it has delivered its ground-breaking technology to 11 countries in Europe, the United States and Asia. It has also started business with the world’s largest distributor of embroidery machines, U.S,-based Hirsch Solutions, which has already installed the technology with several end-customers in the U.S.

China’s cotton yarn imports are expected to rise by 22.4 per cent on a yearly basis in June 2021 and 8.9 per cent on monthly basis. As per a CCF Group report, yarn imports in May increased by 64.6 per cent on yearly basis while they declined by 26.9 per cent on the monthly basis. They amounted to 918,000 tonne cumulatively in the January- April period increasing by 34.4 per cent year on year.

China’s cotton yarn imports from Vietnam increased in June 2021 while those from Pakistan dipped. Uzbekistani cotton yarn accounted for more and more proportion in China market, Cotton yarn imports from Vietnam stood at 76,000 tonne in June, those from Pakistan amounted to 16.5,000 tonne and imports from India amounted to 30,000 tonne.

The arrivals of imported cotton yarn in May declined largely compared with that in Apr, while those in Jun are expected to increase. However, due to slack season, the sales were relatively slow. Only those in short supply were s old smoothly with price rising. Low count cotton yarn saw adequate supply and the prices mainly kept stable. Overall stocks of imported cotton yarn to over 120,000 tonne by June-end.

Cambodian trade unions have collaborated with Clean Clothes Campaign to urge manufacturers and brands to urgently address the issue of wage theft in Asian garment factories. In response, several brands have played down their individual responsibility to ensure proper payment to all workers in their supply chain, often hiding behind international multi-stakeholder initiatives such as the ILO ‘Call to Action’, which have thus far failed to ensure wage payments throughout the pandemic.

The factory assessment shows notable factory-level differences in wage payments during the recent lockdown. The majority of manufacturers only paid workers their regular wage for the days when factories were in operation, providing only a small payment, or no payment at all, for the lockdown period. Only 12 manufacturers ensured that workers’ earnings did not fall below minimum wage when the factories were closed. This reveals the initial successes of trade union struggles to safeguard wages and demonstrates that individual companies can choose to take action to mitigate the financial impact of the crisis on workers.

Cambodian garment workers producing goods for international fashion and sportswear brands, such as Adidas, VF, Target, Nike and Gap, were deprived of an estimated US$ 109 million in wages during the April and May 2021 national lockdown, according to calculations by Cambodian trade unions and the Clean Clothes Campaign. This figure is a projection based on a comprehensive assessment of 114 factories conducted by trade union federations. Combined with outstanding wages and severance pay from the first 13 months of the pandemic, the total amount owed to garment workers in Cambodia is estimated to be a total of $ 393 million.

Adidas is linked to the largest wage theft in the factory sample: the losses inflicted on 30,190 workers across eight Adidas supplier factories since the beginning of the pandemic adds up to $11.7 million, or $387 per worker. Other brands linked to the largest amounts of wage theft in the sample are VF Corporation ($7.7 million), Target ($7.6 million), Nike ($7.5 million), and Gap ($6.7 million).

Global trims supplier YKK has signed a licensing agreement with sustainable textile innovation company Green Theme Technologies (GTT) to use its water-free and non-toxic Empel water protection technology on zippers for the first time.

As per Sourcing Journal, Empel achieves water repellency by using dry curing which coats each fiber individually to increase durability and performance. The solution is considered to be a game-changing technology for high-performance zippers, and one of the best-performing dry fabric finishes in the world.

YKK’s partnership with GTT reflects the company’s commitments to reducing water and chemical usage through innovative technologies. Last October, the company announced YKK Sustainability Vision 2050 a five-prong strategy that addresses climate change, material resources, water resources, chemical management and human rights as well as 10 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative details the ways in which YKK will achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and pass along its sustainable benefits to the thousands of apparel manufacturers that use the company’s fasteners.

A Uzbek delegation led by Bahhtiyor Karimov, Vice Governor, Kitab district signed an agreement with Iranian company Payam Gostar Tejarat Farda for export of textiles from Uzbekistan to Iran for $5 million. The delegation also met the representatives of the North Industrial Marine Coating Co in Mozandaran, Tehran to discuss production of paints and varnishes in Kitab district. The two parties also signed an agreement on the visit of the Iranian delegation to Kashkadarya region in August for implementation of the given joint project.

The Uzbek delegation also participated in the roundtable organized by the Tehran Association of Textile Exporters and Producers with the purpose of further expansion of commercial and economic cooperation between Uzbekistan and Iran.

The Uzbek delegation also visited AMS Industrial Group and held talks on prospects of construction of the plant for crushing stones, sand and gravel production in Kitab district. The talks were also held with Golrooyan Engineering Co. on production of plastic tanks for water.

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SAIC) has begun the arbitration proceedings between the US-based e-commerce behemoth Amazon and Kishore Biyani-promoted Future Group over the latter’s Rs 24,713 crore deal with billionaire Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Retail.

On July 12, a three-member tribunal comprising Singaporean barrister Michael Hwang, Albert van den Berg and Jan Paulsson heard Future Retail’s petition that the dispute was between one of its promoter entities and Amazon, and that it should not be made a party to it. This proceeding continued on July 13, while during the next two days, the bench will contemplate on the appeal to repeal the stay, people familiar with the development told the business daily.

In August 2020, Reliance Retail Ventures had mentioned that it would acquire the retail and wholesale business, and the logistics and warehousing business of Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore.

The SIAC in October last year issued an emergency order, restraining Future Group and Reliance from proceeding with the deal as the American e-commerce titan Amazon claimed that the deal violated its 2019 investment agreement with Future Coupons that gave Amazon the right of first refusal in case of sale.