The US division of the Trident Group, Trident Global Inc. has added two new members to its US design team.

Home Textiles Today reports, Megan Baxter has joined the group as Vice President, Bedding Design. She has over 10 years of experience at Target, most recently as the design lead in the home area. Prior to it, she was a trend manager at Lowe’s Corporation. She will remain based in Minneapolis and collaborate closely with a team of designers in India.

The second member to join the Trident Group is Andrea Mata who has joined as a designer in the bath, beach and kitchen categories. She was most recently a designer at Creative Home Industries, after spending four years in the design department at CHF. She will be based in NYC and report to Carla Grosso, VP of bath design.

The Trident Group has also announced a $300 million expansion plan, to be executed in the next few years.

Revenues at the ultra-luxury French company, Hermes surged by 44 per cent in the first quarter at constant exchange rates and 38 per cent at current exchange rates. As per Fashion Network, the company’s revenues almost doubled during the quarter to 33 per cent.

Its revenues at constant exchange rates rose to €2.08 billion, smashing analysts’ predictions that they would be up ‘only’ 24 per cent.

Sales through the company’s own shops rose by 51 per cent year-on-year and 41 per cent on a two-year basis. That said, wholesale was weaker with a 2 per cent fall as travel retail suffered.

Asia was key as sales on the continent (with Japan excluded) increased by 94 per cent with China emerging a star performer. But Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Australia also saw buoyant business. Meanwhile, sales in Japan rose 20 per cent, despite new COVID measures.

Sales in the US grew by 23 per cent, helping to counter the negative impact in Europe of a new wave of COVID and new lockdowns. Europe revenues were down 1 per cent and France alone was down 9 per cent. It was hurt in particular by store closures in several countries, especially in the UK, Germany and Switzerland.

But its problems in Europe were partially offset by particular strength online. E-sales doubled or more in all regions. The company told reporters that web sales should be more than €1 billion quite soon.

French luxury goods group LVMH plans increase its stake in fashion company Tod’s to 10 per cent.

As per Fashion Network, LVMH plans to buy a 6.8 per cent stake from Tod’s founder and Chairman Diego Della Valle. The Italian luxury leather goods maker has performed worse than most rivals as a result of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. Its January sales had fallen by almost a third last year, marking the fifth year in a row of falling annual sales.

The group, known for its loafer shoes, launched a new strategy in late 2017 to revamp its brand and lure younger consumers, but the health crisis has hampered its efforts. Earlier this month, Italian influencer Chiara Ferragni joined its board, in a move that pushed its shares sharply higher and was seen as a bid to rejuvenate its image.

There has been recurring market speculation that Tod’s could be the target of a takeover by a bigger group, although Della Valle, who has increased his stake in the company in the past couple of years, has repeatedly denied this possibility.

China Cotton Association (CCA) has issued a set of production standards for China's cotton industry to fill up any gaps and promote the image of Chinese cotton.

Through these standards, the association aims to create Chinese cotton products of fine quality by Chinese brands, allowing more people to better understand Chinese cotton, according to media reports.

Through the new standards, the association is also helping growers to further improve production methods, ensure the supply of high-quality cotton and safeguard the rights and interests of workers.

Data provided by the China Cotton Industry Alliance show that cotton produced in Xinjiang in 2020 accounted for 20.8 percent of global output while China's raw cotton consumption reached 7.99 million tons the same year.

Global leader in branded lifestyle apparel, footwear, and accessories, VF Corporation has appointed Matt Puckett as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He will serve on the company’s Executive Leadership Team and report to CEO, Steve Rendle. He has completed 20 years with company. He joined in 2001 as a Senior Accountant in the finance organization. In the following years, Puckett held a series of finance roles including being appointed in 2009 as CFO of VF’s Sportswear Coalition, which comprised the Nautica® and Kipling® brands.

After VF’s 2011 acquisition of the Timberland® brand, Puckett was appointed CFO of Timberland® and helped guide the brand’s successful integration into VF. In 2015, he was named CFO of VF International in Stabio, Switzerland, where he was responsible for all aspects of financial management for VF’s business across the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Puckett returned to the US in 2019 and has been serving as VF’s Vice President, Global Financial Planning & Analysis.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) plans to question Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co) for its use of leather patches in its jeans. At the brand’s annual general meeting, Tracy Reiman, Executive Vice President, PETA plans to urge LS&Co to scrap these patches in favor of the paper patches it already uses on most of its jeans, reports Sourcing Journal.

The organization claims, leather production requires the use of 130 different chemicals including cyanide, and produces huge amount of the greenhouse-gas emissions. Denim brands such as Kings of Indigo. It terms Levi’s use of leather as especially unnecessary since most of its jeans already have non-leather patches.

Responding to these allegations, LS&Co said, leather comprises just a small fraction of its collections as the brand strives to source all materials responsibly.

Lenzing’s Veocel™ brand has introduced the industry’s first carbon neutral Veocel™ branded fibers to support nonwoven industry partners and product brands in reducing climate impact through the use of fibers with a net-zero footprint. Robert van de Kerkhof, Board Member, Lenzing, says, the new carbon neutral Veocel™ Lyocell fibers will play a big role in contributing to Lenzing’s goal to become a net-zero company by 2050. These fibers are certified as CarbonNeutral® products with a carbon footprint reduced to net-zero according to The CarbonNeutral Protocol.

Achieving certified carbon neutrality was the result of Lenzing’s ambitious carbon reduction efforts over the last years and the collaboration with Natural Capital Partners, a recognized global leader in the design, development and delivery of corporate climate action programs. These Veocel™ branded fibers reinforce Lenzing’s commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative around reduction of total global carbon emissions, a quest driven by the UN Paris Agreement.

Hamilton International has returned as an independent supplier to the polyester industrial yarn segment. As per Business Wire, the company provides innovative textile solutions to its customers besides supporting their uninterrupted supply chain. It is led by Art Hamilton who has more than 30 years of experience in the industry and is able to leverage a worldwide network of sourcing relationships to meet client needs.

The company’s approach to the market allows it to negotiate the best pricing, meet a customer’s precise requirements, and mitigate supply chain issues. It works with suppliers in several countries, and invests to keep the supply chain full. Hamilton International is a North American supplier of innovative textile solutions to customers across industries by sourcing products and investing in strategic production. The company was founded in 2008 by Art Hamilton following years in the industrial textiles industry.

Industrial and business consulting company AMAC is strengthening its position in new textile-based developments in partnership with the Institute for Textile Technology, (ITA) at RWTH Aachen University. As per Innovation in Textiles, ITA develops complete solutions, from manufacturing fibres to the processing of textile intermediates with thermoplastic and thermoset resins and textile-based parts manufacturing, based on technologies such as braiding, pultrusion and the in-situ impregnation of textile preforms. The company focuses on transportation industry, particularly the e-mobility sector, as well as building and construction and wind energy. Its partnership with AMAC will help it benefit from its network in the composites industry.

ITA is a one-stop source for composite solutions from the fibre to the cost-efficient manufacturing of final parts. With 250 different technologies at is machine-park in Aachen, it offers further valuable networking opportunities to the composites industry as well as access to relevant complementary fibre-based excellence.

As per a survey by Euromonitor International, around 74 per cent of global retail and consumer brand professionals expect the crisis-led rise in online shopping to become permanent. Respondents also expect half of the absolute value growth for the global retail sector over 2020-25 period to be digital. Of this, China and the US will account for 55 per cent of that value growth. Emerging e-commerce region Latin America is likely to see increase adoption of e-commerce adoption with more consumers shopping online to obtain necessities.

In 2020, the region posted the strongest growth in goods sold online with 60 per cent jump. MercadoLibre was one of the biggest corporate beneficiaries of the digital shift in Latin America. Euromonitor expects the region to continue growing during the forecast period, propelled by Mexico, which is narrowing the gap between itself and the region’s largest e-commerce market, Brazil. Traditionally, e-commerce in Mexico was driven by the travel sector. However, the desire to shop online out of safety concerns led consumers to overlook some of the hurdles like fraud and logistics that had previously dampened online sales.