Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently hinted that some relaxations may be allowed after April 20 to resume business activities, manufacturers and exporters at Tirupur garment cluster in Chennai are skeptical about reopening their factories. Raja M Shanmugam, President of Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA), says the current cause of worry is the rising number of patients in Tirupur. The PM has clearly said relaxation may be allowed from April 20 in places that are not virus hotspots but after Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirupur districts have reported the highest number of patients in the state. Shanmugam says, if exporters are not allowed to run factories, then they will suffer massive losses and it will take years for us to recover from it.

Tirupur Exporters Association has recently also written to the Central and state governments to allow the textile cluster to reopen, so that they can send samples to clients in the US and Europe, and retain export orders for Spring/Summer collection. Otherwise, they will lose their export customers forever to countries like China, Bangladesh and Pakistan, where factories are still functional.

Trade shows giant Hyve Group is considering the possibility of equity fundraise. The move could come as the firm’s business continues to be hit by the pandemic. Hyve, which organises key shows such as Pure London and Moda, had to postpone a number of events and it’s still unclear how successful rescheduled trade shows will be.

The options under review include possibly raising more cash by issuing shares. That’s an approach that has been taken by several firms, including both Asos and Joules. Meanwhile others, like Next, have sought to raise cash via selling and leasing back assets such as head office buildings and distribution hubs.

Hyve continues to be engaged in constructive dialogue with the group's lenders in relation to covenant headroom and facility flexibility and has already secured a waiver of the June 2020 covenant tests under its debt facilities.

PG Denim has launched a new capsule collection “Fuck Bacteria” which focuses on a product that arouses emotions, originality and uniqueness. Unlike the latest collections, PG Denim wants to create a new era in the fashion market, a product that follows the fundamentals of sustainability , starting from the creation of fabrics certificated by GOTS and BCI, DTOX and OEKO TEX, dyeing in Indigo with low water consumption, using chemical products which allow ozone finishing to avoid the use of water.

The collection will be developed on multiple fronts, using separate and unique technologies supplied by Rudolf. The first one is a microstructure covered with metallic silver that acts as an extraordinarily effective bacteriostatic. Many bacteria that cause infections and disagreeable odors, cannot adapt to fabrics that have been treated with silver ions. The product is the same one used in clinics and hospitals to prevent infections. This product has been designed for high resistance washing, both for domestic, industrial (over 100 cycles even at high temperatures) and dry cleaning. Inspired by Mother Nature’s work, the second technology (applied on the fabrics), guarantees high performance, fuornine-free water repellency, does not alter the fabrics “touch” and has an excellent resistance to washing and abrasion.

Apex exporters body FIEO recently revealed the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) do not have adequate liquidity to pay wages to their employees for the month of April as they are unable to conduct any business activity during the lockdown. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) reiterated that the government should immediately announce an incentive package and give permisssion for partial resumption of operations in manufacturing units.

FIEO also expressed disappointment on deferment of the decision to allow selective opening of the manufacturing sector, particularly export units. According to it, non-adherence to the delivery schedule for exports will result in cancellation, penalties and market loss, besides the business loss to enterprises.

Vietnamese garment companies have signed deals to export hundreds of millions of face masks to the US and the EU. Hanoi-based Garment 10 Jsc (Garco 10) has received orders for 400 million medical masks and 20 million cloth masks from buyers in the US and Germany.

TNG Investment and Trading Jsc in the northern Thai Nguyen Province have been exporting cloth masks to France, Belgium and Germany for almost a month. The company is now working on administrative procedures to gift 500 cloth masks to the New York Police Department. It is also planning to produce medical masks from mid-May since there is huge demand for them, he said.

Shifting from garments to masks allows them to keep production going and pay employees, somewhat mitigating the losses caused by canceled orders, which are estimated at over $470 million. Garco 10 CEO Than Duc Viet said mask exports account for almost 30 per cent of the company’s revenues this year. TNG also saw domestic sales rise 10 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, mostly from masks.

The Foreign Trade Agency said that Vietnam has the potential to become a major global mask exporter. It can make at least 200 million masks a month, and some producers have been able to make their own raw materials to reduce dependence on imports.

Bloomberg reports that JC Penney has approached consulting firm AlixPartners LLP as the US retailer looks at options for managing its debt. Brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to keep up with the shift to online shopping, and the crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak which has forced them to shutter stores and furlough employees.

JC Penney has been in talks with lenders in recent weeks about its liquidity needs and negotiating a possible debt deal, the report said. The retailer had $3.72 billion in borrowings as of Feb. 1, its latest annual filing showed, with cash and cash equivalents of $386 million. Its 2019 sales fell 8 per cent to $10.72 billion from the previous year.

The company's combined credit score, which measures on a scale of 100 to 1 how likely a company is to default on its debts in the next year, was ‘1’, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, indicating it was expected to default.

Weekly sales data from H&M China shows that while stores are slowly recovering from the peak of the pandemic in Mainland China, there has clearly not been an immediate bounce back. H&M China’s sales declined by 79 per cent in week 10 despite 89 per cent of its stores in the country being open, raising the question whether this is a financially viable strategy in other affected markets due to the burden on operating costs.

Nearly all retailers have reopened stores but consumer propensity to spend is significantly higher than in mature retail markets such as the US and much of western Europe so we expect store reopening schedules and the recovery process to be longer than what we have witnessed in China.

According to Global Data, these retailers must start planning a recovery strategy for each country they operate in, taking into account consumer sentiment and confidence, the country’s financial stability, consumer propensity to spend on fashion, online penetration and the time in the season and promotional calendar.

Some retailers may need to consider whether consumer demand after the pandemic’s peak will be sufficient to warrant reopening all stores in any one market at once.

Ebay gas appointed former Walmart Inc executive Jamie Iannone as its chief executive officer, effective April 27The company plans to install four directors on Ebay’s 14-member board and wanted the company to appoint an outsider as its permanent chief executive.

Scott Schenkel, the e-commerce company’s chief financial officer, has been serving as interim CEO since Devin Wenig stepped down in September, citing differences with Ebay’s board. Iannone, who most recently served as chief operating officer of Walmart E-commerce, previously held leadership roles at Ebay from 2001 to 2009 and will begin his term as chief executive officer on April 27.

The e-commerce company last year sold its ticketing unit, StubHub, for $4.05 billion, after activist investors Elliott Management Corp and Starboard urged its sale as part of a plan that could double eBay’s value. It plans to release an update on the classifieds business by the middle 2020.

About 65 per cent of apparel exporters’ payment amounting to around $2 billion (about Rs 15,300 crore) is currently stuck with foreign buyers since overseas buyers and buying houses are now either cancelling or postponing confirmed export orders. As Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) chairman Sakthivel says, with lockdowns across markets, foreign buyers are postponing orders, and asking for hefty discounts. Goods in transit goods are also not moving. Besides, the goods dispatched are also not finding any takers on different foreign ports.”

K L Magu, MD, Jyoti Apparels adds most exporters’ bank deposits today stand exhausted. Foreign buying houses have also not paid for the two to three month-old shipment, leading a huge blow to cash flow. Various manufacturers have disclosed that foreign buyers are not lifting deliveries which have already reached their ports. Sakthivel says, such cancellations and postponement of shipments are resulting in packing credits being eroded. Apparel products are tailor made, design-specific and fashion-specific and are perishable and any cancellation at this stage would make them redundant with little or no salvage value the next year.

Rajendra Agarwal, Managing Director, Donear Industries also confirmed that there has been postponement of deliveries from brands like Blackberry, Madura Garments, ITC, within India.

The fast-moving pandemic has injected a tremendous amount of uncertainty into every link in the global supply chain. Millions of people are self-isolating and the cotton and textile business is at a virtual standstill. A recent survey by the International Textile Manufacturers’ Federation (ITFM) indicated that the global textile industry had experienced a 31 per cent decline in orders by early April.

The survey also pointed out that all regions around the world had suffered a significant number of cancellations and/or postponements of orders, especially South America and Africa, where orders declined 41 per cent and 38 per cent respectively.

The international wool industry has been negatively affected by the pandemic, leaving many wool producers with uncertainty about the options available for their clips. According to the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the effect of COVID-19 on the cotton industry is very uncertain

The National Farm Online website reported that due to lockdowns in the US and Europe, many orders had been cancelled. Hennie Bruwer, CEO of Cotton South Africa, told Farmer’s Weekly that he expected cotton consumption to be suppressed worldwide due to the slowdown of the global economy, as well as the effects of COVID-19.

However, South Africa’s cotton industry was in a good position because of the quality product produced by local farmers, which earned them premium prices.