Ijaz A Khokar, Chief Coordinator, Pakistan Readmade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) has hailed the government’s decision to allow export of N-95 and surgical masks as a step in the right direction which would surely help boost the exports of the country. He disclosed that the garment industry was receiving huge international inquires of masks and Personal Protective Equipments.

Khalid Hanif, Pakistan Trade and Investment Counselor in Pakistan Embassy Rome informed the Commerce Ministry that both the products were currently in high demand in EU because 16 countries out of 27 were heading towards second wave of COVID-19. Ijaz further said, the business community was making strenuous efforts to start producing N-95 and Surgical masks for export purposes. The allowing of export of these masks would enable Pakistan earn billion of rupees. The business community would switch over its production to Personal Protective Equipment to capture demanding market share of the world.

Le Tote Inc, the parent company of Lord & Taylor is liquidating five more brand’s stores. The liquidation process is being led by a joint venture of Hilco Merchant Resources and Gordon Brothers. That brings the total number of Lord &Taylor stores being liquidated to 24. Before the liquidation process, the brand has 38 stores operating.

The five stores being liquidated are in Schaumburg, Ill.; Salem, NH; Rockaway, NJ; Livingston, N.J., and Huntington Station, NY. Liquidation will help Lord & Taylor customers save 20 to 40 per cent off the lowest ticketed prices on all merchandise, with limited exceptions. Le Tote filed for bankruptcy on Aug. 2 this year. The company is continuing to review offers for a sale of the company, including Lord & Taylor. While Lord & Taylor is steadily disappearing from the brick-and-mortar retail landscape, it’s possible its web site continues to operate through a sale.

Le Tote, a fashion subscription service, bought Lord & Taylor for $75 million a year ago. The department store had been performing poorly for several years and shut down its iconic Fifth Avenue flagship on Jan. 2, 2019, and the pandemic compounded the venerable department store’s misfortunes.

A recent survey reveals India’s spinning capacity utilization is fast reaching peak levels. The survey covering 24 spinning mills, with total installed capacity of 79.63 million spindles says overall capacity utilization reached 74 per cent on July 23, and 84 per cent on August 13. Vardhman Textiles had a capacity utilization of 44 per cent on May 11, which increased to 69 per cent by May-end, 93-98 per cent in July, and 94-99 per cent by August 13.

Capacity utilization by the Trident Group increased to 98 per cent on August 13 from 24 per cent on May 11. Nahar Spinning reported spindle capacity utilization at 54 per cent on May 11 which increased to 86 per cent on May 31, 90 per cent in July, and 95-98 per cent by mid-August.

RSWM’s capacity utilization increased from 26 per cent in mid-May to 75 per cent by mid-August. Aarti International’s capacity utilization went up from 86 per cent in mid-May to 95 per cent in mid-August.

Clusterwise, South Zone including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu account for 27.64 million spindles. North Zone including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana has 3.80 million spindles and it capacity utilization increased to 65 per cent by August 13. Capacity utilization in the Gujarat cluster including Ahmedabad and Surat increased to 75 per cent in mid-August.

According to the survey, recovery in the organized sector has been better and faster. With 6.77 million spindles, the capacity utilization in the organized sector had gone down to 44 per cent in mid-May. However it moved up to 59 per cent by the end of May, to 70 per cent in June, 74 per cent in July, and 84 per cent by mid-August.

Capacity utilization in the unorganized sector also increased from 25 per cent in May to 58 per cent by mid-August.

Maternity and children wear brand Mothercare has launched a sustainable and less capital-intensive business model with effect from the A/W ’20 season. The new model enables franchise partners to pay directly to manufacturing partners for products. This improves the pricing for franchise partners, which in reincentivizes retail sales growth and assist the brand’s manufacturing partners in reinstating credit insurance for future seasons”.

This week, Mothercare also completed the detailed contractual arrangements for the appointment of Boots UK as its UK and Republic of Ireland franchise partner. This will be for an initial period of 10 years.

As per this partnership, Mothercare branded clothing will be available in a large number of Boots stores from this autumn with home and travel products being available in larger Boots stores, as well as online at www.boots.com. Mothercare also entered into a new 20-year franchise agreement with the Alshaya Group.

Analysts from Telsey Advisory Group believe retailer Target is well-positioned to continue to gain market share, supported by ongoing strategies — price investments, private brands, remodels, small-format stores, fulfillment/supply chain enhancements, loyalty programs, and Target-plus marketplace — and retail consolidation. They attribute Target’s impressive performance to the company’s omnichannel strategies, superior execution, and benefits from US government stimulus checks.

According to Craig R Johnson, President,Customer Growth Partners, six big retailers are outperforming peers due to a variety of reasons. Known as the Big Six, these retailers include Target, Walmart, Amazon, Costco, Home Depot and Lowe’s. They share common performance drivers including strong and consistent traffic growth, rising store-level productivity, superior or much-improved online platforms’ and a balance of discretionary and non-discretionary merchandise as well as a strong understanding of their customers’ needs and preferences.

Johnson estimates that these six retailers collective garner about 29 percent of the total US retail market. While Home Depot and Lowe’s don’t sell apparel, the others are actively the market in this segment as smaller specialty apparel chains have faltered.

Buoyed by global demand ahead of Christmas, garment exporters in Bangladesh are confident about exports rebounding by December. Exporters hope to garner a bigger share in the United States market even though they lagged behind Vietnam during July and June, as per General Statistics Office of Vietnam and the Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau.

Though exporters are getting new work orders, it’s not sufficient as only basic items are in demand, says Anwarul-Alam-Chowdhury Parvez, Former President, BGMEA. The pandemic has hit the country’s exports by around 18 per cent with export earnings declining to $32.83 billion in fiscal 2019-20.

A bigger share in Chinese market

To tackle these challenges, Bangladesh government and the private sector aim to work on a long-term plan, opines Chowdhury. This can be a ‘golden chance’ for Bangladesh to grab a share of the Chinese garment market in the US as China’s garment exports to the US have nosedived after COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, says US Department of Commerce Office of Textile and Apparel.

From January to April of this year, Bangladesh’s garment exports to the US increased just 2.13 per cent to $2.07 billion. Among the many reasons for slow growth are closures of factories in April due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Though factories reopened on a limited scale in May and June, they exported garments worth only $3.5 billion, says Mohammed Hatem, Vice President of BKMEA.

Slow delivery, lack of FTAs and skilled labor

Vietnam on the other hand, exported $3 billion worth garments more than Bangladesh as Vietnamese investors are quick on deliveries. They can collect raw materials from China in three to four days and deliver finished products soon to the buyers. The country’s Free Trade Agreement with the US and other countries is another reason for exports superseding Bangladesh. Vietnam’s manufacturers pay only 5 per cent export duty while Bangladesh manufacturers pay 15 percent to export garments to the US.

Another big reason for Vietnam’s export growth is its skilled labor which greatly reduces production cost. Vietnamese manufacturers also pay lower utility bills and their industrial units uninterrupted power supply with no voltage fluctuations.

COVID-19 depresses demand

Bangladesh factory owners had a boost recently when the government provided four months’ salary for workers under an incentive package to cushion the effects of the pandemic on the economy. This helped the country increase garment exports to $3.24 billion in July, which was better than in April, May and June. However, the country’s exports are again expected to decline in August and September as it has few work orders. As most people lost their income to COVID-19 pandemic, demand for garments has depressed, says Hatem. However, he is confident of the demand increasing as the situation goes back to normal.

Wait and watch

Ahsan H Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute too believes Bangladesh will be able to gain back second position in garment exports if it survives the challenge for a year. There would have been an 8-9 percent decrease in Bangladesh garment exports even without the pandemic. COVID-19 pushed it to 18 per cent. He therefore advises exporters to keep a close watch on global market and hope for some good for its garment sector.

Wing Tak Bill Lam, Chairman, Teejak Lanka feels, trade conflict between the United States and China could assist countries like Sri Lanka to raise exports. Lam says Sri Lankan exports of textiles and garments are likely to decline in the near term, especially to key export destinations of Europe and the US.

Sri Lankan apparel exports during the first six months of this year declined 30 per cent to $1.8 billion from $2.6 billion a year ago. Apparel exports to the European Union during the first six months of this year declined 32 per cent to $753 million from $1.1 billion recorded a year earlier, while exports to the US during the same period declined 27 per cent to $830.5 million from $1.14 billion.

However, with COVID-19 global pandemic many companies are now frightened to rely on single destinations for its supply chain. According to Lam, these countries are now moving away from China to partner with other South Asian countries, which Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers can easily tap into, according to Sri Lankan media reports. Statistics released by the Apparel Exporters Association indicates, apparel exports in June this year reached $382 million, down by 20.5 per cent from $481 million recorded during the corresponding month of last year.

According to IBES data from Refinitiv, TJX, owner of off-price retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls, expects current-quarter same-store sales to decline by up to 20 percent after reporting a bigger-than-expected loss for the previous three months, sending the off-price retailer's shares down about 7 percent. In the quarter, TJX's Marmaxx brand witnessed a 6 per cent decline in comparable sales at stores reopened, even as its HomeGoods chain, which sells furniture, rugs, tabletop and cookware, posted a 20 per cent increase.

Overall net sales slumped 32 per cent to $6.67 billion as stores were closed for nearly one-third of the quarter, but the numbers came in above estimates of $6.57 billion. Excluding items, it lost 18 cents per share in the second quarter ended Aug. 1, compared with market expectations of 10 cents per share,

The company anticipates slower back-to-school selling season, as more school districts rolled back their reopening plans. The retail chain also grappled with bringing shipments into its stores, particularly in Canada, due to virus-led supply and logistics issues that have gripped some retailers ever since the lockdown was imposed.

Though apparel brands are keeping their best merchandise for their own channels or have put their wholesale business on pause, TJX has increased its buying since mid-July to support the flow of inventory. The company said traffic and demand have moderated after a stronger-than-expected surge upon the reopening of its stores.

The Framingham, Massachusetts-based company has reopened nearly all of its 4,557 locations in nine countries.

As per a report by the CCF Group, of all various downstream fields of nylon, consumption of nylon films grew significantly in the first half of 2020. This was mainly driven by surging demand for convenient and fast food at the early stage of the pandemic around the world, which drove up demand for nylon film. Particularly in March and April, when the pandemic was spreading fast, nylon film exports surged. The output of nylon film grew to 8 per cent in H1 2020.

However, output of nylon 6 textile filament reduced by 5 per cent year-on-year, and the proportion of nylon distribution to film dipped 2 percentage from 55 per cent in 2019 to 53 per cent in H1 2020. Nylon 6 textile filament demand shrank due to falling China domestic textiles trading and exports in the first half of 2020. In China domestic market, shrunk demand for textiles could be told in evidently declined China Textile City turnover in the first 7 months in 2020.

The actual demand for NFY driven by mask export is estimated at around 40-50kt, however, the demand decrease due to shrinking apparel exports is estimated at around 180-230kt. The temporary increase in textiles export could not make up the shortage brought by lower apparels trading.

In other areas, the output of industrial filament, engineering plastic, and microfiber was also restricted during February-March and in April-May both supply and demand recovered to a normal pace. Demand for staple fiber had shrunk similarly like nylon 6 textile filament, given the shrinking end user’s demand on the year.

Besides the impact on demand in various areas, supply of nylon 6 in the first half of the year was the same as that same period last year, as some imports were replaced by China domestic production and some cargoes were accumulated in the form of inventory (mainly high-speed spinning.

New data from Statista shows between March to May 2020, the clothing and accessories retail sector experienced a remarkable uptick in sales clothing and accessories. A few brands wisely capitalized on this rise in demand and created new marketing approaches. Prominent amongst these is clothing and accessory brand Madewell which created a new, curated section on website for jewelry items for those working from home.

This new section of Madewell’s ecommerce site went live in April and is devoted to being video chat friendly. The brand has also extended the approach to tops and apparel, curating items that look polished but also comfortable and easy to wear.

Peter Nguyen, a private personal stylist based in New York says, there’s still quite a bit of room for brands to expand and improve upon the idea of curating products that are well-suited for video calls Lele Sadoughi is doing just that—and profiting from it. Leveraging its colorful offerings of accessories, jewelry, and headbands, Sadoughi has been marketing on how pairing their products can instantly transform a look, frame the face, and make the wearer feel more dressed up and professional.