Topping Zara’s parent company Inditex, the value of Fast Retailing, the Japanese parent of casual clothing chain Uniqlo, reached 10.87 trillion yen ($103 billion) recently. As per Asia Nikkei reports, the casual wear specialist is well positioned to capitalize on the changing habits of consumers. The company operated 2,298 Uniqlo stores around the world in November. Sixty percent of these stores were located in Asia with China being the company’s second biggest market after Japan.

The company’s operating margin in Greater China during the last fiscal year ended August stood at 14.4 per cent. The company adopted the "digital consumer retailing" concept in 2016, which involves analyzing data from online and store purchases from IC tags attached to all merchandise. It has partnered with Google and other outside companies to develop a manufacturing infrastructure powered by artificial intelligence.

In terms of revenue, Fast Retailing remains in third place at roughly 2 trillion yen ($18.9 billion) for the previous fiscal year. Inditex leads the way at €28.2 billion ($34.1 billion dollar) for the year ended January 2020, while Sweden's H&M is runner-up with 187 billion kronor ($22.5 billion) for the financial year through last November.

Leading home textiles player, Trident has jointly bagged the first prize at FICCI Water Awards 2020 in the ‘Industrial Water Use Efficiency’ category. The awards promote awareness, policy advocacy, sharing of best practices and thought leadership in the area of water use efficiency.

As per Deepak Nanda, Managing Director, Trident, the award recognizes the company’s efforts towards sustainable manufacturing practices especially water conservation and motivates it to do better every day. The award is instituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry, (FICCI), a professionally run apex business organization in India.

Trident was selected for this award for the measures it undertook to establish water efficient machineries, zero liquid discharge system, kaizen implementation, rainwater harvesting, etc. Trident is one of the top five manufacturers of terry towels in the world.

The Platform on Sustainable Textiles of the Asian Region, or STAR Network, has added four new members: Indonesian Textile Association, the Turkish Clothing Manufacturers Association, the Istanbul Ready-Made Garments Exporters’ Association and the Moroccan Association of Textile & Clothing Industries. As per Fashion Network, these members are from Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, Pakistan and Vietnam. They are banding together to agree on common positions regarding payment and delivery terms and reset the buyer-supplier relationship.

Suppliers represent two-thirds of the global market for apparel and footwear factory exports. They were being squeezed with falling demand worsened by the pandemic. As per a survey of 75 factories in 15 countries, published in October by the Worker Rights Consortium and the Center for Global Workers’ Rights at Penn State University, suppliers have to wait an average 77 days after they complete and ship new orders before to receive payment, compared to 43 days in pre-pandemic days. In addition, 40 per cent of buyers demanded an extension of payment period to 120 days.

In collaboration with stakeholders and partners such as GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), the International Apparel Federation and the Better Buying Institute, the STAR Network seeks to enable manufacturers jointly draft a set of minimum expectations related to payment and delivery, including establishing fair and legitimate business principles.

Rising bilateral trade between India and Mexico offers huge potential for growth of apparel between the two countries, says Manpreet Vohra, Indian Ambassador. Vohra was addressing the 'India-Mexico Synergies in Apparel and Textiles' virtual meeting, organized by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) and Embassy of India, Mexico City, Mexico.

He said, one of the most important products in India-Mexico bilateral trade is garments and textiles. From January to November 2020, India exported garments and textiles worth $7.9 billion to Mexico and can further increase these exports, he added. A leading exporter of high quality and competitively priced garments and textiles, India has a market size of $100 billion. Both this market size and India’s share in global apparel trade are likely to triple by 2024-25, he added.

A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC added, India has successfully enhanced production of medical textiles from zero in March 2020 to world's second-largest manufacturer in June. Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman (Export Promotion), AEPC said, India currently exports only one MMF product to Mexico. This needs to be addressed and MMF exports need to be increased.

Australia is investing $350,000 in Australian Circular Textile Association to tackle 800,000 tons of clothing and textiles waste generated by citizens every year. As per reports, the government will host a national roundtable on the issue, bringing together representatives of retail, fashion, charity, production, research and waste management to curb the dumping of textiles. According to the Association, parents who have just been purchasing school uniforms and trades getting ready for the year ahead will contribute 12,000 tons of branded uniforms alone to landfill in the next 12 months. ACTA announced a new initiative, Circular Threads to investigate new technologies to separate and repurpose fabrics from used clothes, and create remanufacturing opportunities.

Camille Reed, Founder, CEO, ACTA believes, the problem needs an industry led approach to find the ways to break down clothing elements and re-use individual components and the fabrics themselves.

Japanese textile firms, Itochu and Aquafil have collaborated to expand their circular nylon production business. Both companies will work towards recovery of nylon waste and development, production, and sale of Econyl nylon products. Econyl Regeneration System was created by Aquafil In 2011. The system turns recovered nylon waste such as fishing nets, carpets and post-industrial waste back to caprolactam (CPL), a crude raw material. Through its proprietary chemical recycling technology, Aquafil eliminates impurities completely, to achieve regenerated nylon product having the same features of the virgin quality materials.

Econyl nylon has been adopted as an environmentally friendly material by more than 2,000 brands around the world. In the fashion industry, it has received strong support from major fashion brands including Burberry, Gucci, and Prada, Itochu said in a media statement.

Itochu is a dealer of CPL and nylon chips, the raw materials of nylon. The utilization of Itochu’s nylon value chain corresponded the direction of Aquafil’s Econyl business, resulting in the purpose of this partnership. Moving forward, Itochu will leverage on its group’s diverse network and expand sales for applications in fashion, carpeting, automobiles, and packaging materials. Itochu also plans to enforce Aquafil’s nylon waste recovery scheme using its existing sales chain and will also implement the partnership from the perspective of the stable supply of raw materials to Aquafil.

Themed ‘Denim Tomorrow,’ this year’s Hong Kong Denim Festival focuses on connecting industry’s next generation of designers and creators with established denim producers. Scheduled from February to March, the event will host exhibitions, workshops, forums, shopping and more.

As per Carved in Blue, the fair will kick off on February 19 at PMQ with a live-streamed opening ceremony. An exhibit titled ‘Denim Tomorrow’ exhibit will be held on the same day with 12 companies showcasing innovative materials to Hong Kong’s local denim designers. The display will include TENCEL™ branded fibers as well as manufacturers and machinery firms Advance Denim, Panther Denim, Jeanologia, Levi Strauss, Brother and more. The exhibition will also feature the ‘International Denim Design Exchange Project,’ with work from seven students from around the globe.

The event will also include a “Denim Tomorrow” bazaar featuring displays from 20 local denim designers and artists and five international creators. Keeping safety concerns in view, vendors will host live-streams and leverage online showroom capabilities to reach those who cannot travel to see them in-person.

There will also workshops featuring projects such as making a denim headband, origami handbag or bow tie. Other classes will allow participants to upcycle jeans with paint or turn jeans into an apron.

The festival will host a forum to discuss innovations in denim on February 22. Lenzing’s own Tricia Carey will be among the speakers, along with other denim names like Genius Group founder Adriano Goldschmied, Jordi Juaní Moragas from Jeanologia and The Denim Window founder Silvia Rancani. The festival will continue in March with ‘Downtown Denim’ at Shamshuipo, with more shopping, workshops and exhibitions.

Since 2019, the festival has attracted more than 60,000 attendees, including retailers, manufacturers, brands, students and the public. The event aims to support Hong Kong’s position as the ‘Denim City of Asia.’

As per a survey by the research office of Italian investment bank Mediobanca, the aggregate revenue of leading fashion multinationals plummeted by 21.8 per cent in the first nine months of 2020 owing to the impact of the pandemic. Fashion Network estimates this revenue slump to be five-times worse than the 4.3 per cent shortfall suffered in the same period by major international industrial groups.

In the first nine months of 2020, revenues of European fashion market declined 23.7 per cent while those of Asia, Japan excluded, declined 10.1 per cent. Online sales in these markets rose by 60 per cent though they could compensate for the fall in total revenue. The study states, the fourth quarter offers a glimmer of hope as revenues of fashion companies have risen by approximately 17 per cent, compared to the year’s first three quarters. Italy’s fashion sector will start recovering in 2021. It will reach pre-pandemic levels by 2023.

Arvind has launched its new Infiknity collection featuring more stretch indigo knitted denims. As per Carved in Blue, made with processes including circular knitting for seamless construction, these knitted denims provide a versatile solution for the needs of consumers.

Arvind offers a plethora of constructions in indigo dyed knits. It uses circular knitting with indigo yarns and integrates it with seamless garment technology to enhance their comfort factor. These denims offer a perfect mold for all body contours, infusing ease in movement for regular, as well as highly active lifestyles, making this product multifunctional and easy to wear.

The denims are manufactured with reduced processes that help the company to control their carbon footprint, energy consumption and contribute towards water conservation. They are made using Tencel™ branded lyocell fibers which offer natural comfort and environmentally responsible closed loop production process.

Multiple changes made in India’s ecommerce FDI norms to promote domestic retailers in the past few years are causing roadblocks to global ecommerce companies like Jeff Bezos-owned Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart India’s ecommerce players are compelled to mention the ‘country of origin’ on every product sold across their marketplaces. The government also plans to tighten FDI rules besides banning a seller with a foreign stakeholder. If formalized, these changes will hurt Amazon India the most as it holds indirect stakes in two of its biggest online sellers in India, Appario and Cloudtail. The government also plans to levy a 2 per cent equalization levy or digital services tax on these products.

The rise of Joe Biden led Democratic government in the US has given American ecommerce companies much needed boost to survive the business challenges in India. Both Amazon and Flipkart are getting sufficient support from the current US government. As per government’s Congressional Research Service (CSR) report, the new FDI norms on raising foreign equity caps for insurance and defence and other strides will help India attract foreign investments.

New amendments in FDI rules

However, despite these changes, ease of doing business seems to be far from reality in India. Since 2016, the Indian government has been tightening FDI policies for these e-commerce marketplaces. The latest amendment, known as Press Note 2 (2018), allows 100 per cent FDI in in India’s marketplace model under certain conditions. This entails Press Note 2, ecommerce companies operating marketplaces in India cannot own any of the inventory sold on their marketplace. Also they cannot influence the sale of goods directly or indirectly. Another rule these companies have to abide by is not to hold an equity share in a vendor’s firm that intends to sell on the said e-commerce entity.

No impact of trade relations with other nations

Abhishek Rastogi, Partner, Khaitan & Co is confident India’s investment-related decisions regarding marketplace model will not impact its trade relations with other countries as India has the right to take such calls. He reveals the Indian government plans to simplify FDI norms and direct the management of indirect stakes of these global companies in Indian subsidiaries. The government has initiated a draft ecommerce policy that mandates the approval of nodal ministry whenever changes in ecommerce regulations are made. The policy also aims to invite and encourage foreign investment in ‘marketplace’ model alone. It debars an e-commerce platform with a foreign stakeholder from owning or controlling the inventory on its platform.

Importance of the India-US partnership

The Indian e-commerce space is currently engaged in a swadeshi versus videshi battle. Comparing Amazon to the East India Company, lobby groups are promoting Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and its subsidiaries under the swadeshi label. On its part, the government plans to promote MSMEs by making certain changes in FDI regulations.

However, despite this, India cannot ignore the Biden government as it needs to acquire a greater access to American products across farming, medical devices and agricultural implements. It also requires a reduction in import duties on some information and communication technology products. In turn, it seeks to resume export benefits to certain domestic products under the GSP, exemption from high duties imposed by the US on steel and aluminium products. It also plans to provide greater access to its products across the agriculture, automobile and automobile components and engineering sectors.

According to Jayant Dasgupta, Former Indian ambassador, WTO, India’s goods and services trade with the US totaled $146 billion in 2019. Exports to the US was $58.6 billion and imports was $87.4 billion. Its FDI in India (stock) increased 8.2 per cent to $45.9 billion in CY2019.

US focus to help India counter China threat

For quite some time now, India has been planning to reduce its trade dependency on China. Last year, it monitored all popular Chinese digital platforms operating in China as well as FDI inflows from Chinese investors. In such circumstances, it needs to support the US by offering trade concessions under the MFN (Most Favored Nation) clause, which also extends to China and many other nations under the WTO guidelines, adds Dasgupta.

India’s future stand on FDI for ecommerce marketplaces depends on its relations with the Biden government. Though the country is free to protect its domestic sellers, the current market size of Amazon and Flipkart requires it to introduce a comprehensive ecommerce policy that has little scope for sporadic changes.