H. Stoll AG & Co. KG will present its latest innovations and developments within the fields of fashion, technology, technical textiles and knit wear at ITMA Barcelona 2019. The company will showcase its new knitelligence® machine generation at the event. Furthermore it will showcase a production process -knitelligence® and STOLL-knitrobotic®.

The new knitelligence® machine generation is tailored to the specific needs of the digital world. It facilitates work through process automation, more transparency, shorter response times, shorter production cycles, and higher productivity. Based on knitelligence® and the latest innovation, STOLL-knitrobotic® is a fully automated production process which allows visitors to take home a finished knitwear piece with an individualised motif as a souvenir.

The new STOLL Trend Collection exemplifies and impressively demonstrates the variety of materials that the STOLL technology supports. In addition to the commercially available yarns, STOLL also works with unusual yarns for the knitting industry that represent a solution to a major challenge of flat knitting technology. These yarns include used plastic bags, silver foil, and jute bags that have been utilized to knit luxury products – the inspiration here being the concept of up-cycling.

In the sector of Technical Textiles, STOLL will showcase demanding technical applications on the CMS 530 ki W in the gauge E7.2. Other technical applications to be presented by STOLL at the exhibition will include TT home, TT med, TT mobility, TT e-tex and TT sport.

In field of knit and wear STOLL will present the ADF 830-24 ki W knit and wear and CMS 830 ki knit and wear. The ADF 830-24 ki W knit and wear offers greater flexibility in coloring and patterning – providing greater productivity. This ADF offers the entire spectrum of technology and functionality in the knit and wear range.

The second machine in the knitwear sector is the CMS 830 ki knitwear machine. This is a high-performance, basic machine with an excellent price-performance ratio. In addition to standard techniques, it offers demanding patterns such as the French shoulder. One of its features include the enhancement of the intarsia capability. The CMS 830 ki knit and wear offers the gauge E9.2. This machine is the economical entry-level machine for flexible use, both for conventional production and knit and wear divisions.

There has been a rise in garment exports from Bangladesh to India. Before GST, Indian importers had to pay a countervailing duty of about five percent to seven percent, which drove up the costs of these garments. With GST having subsumed this duty, apparel from Bangladesh has become cheaper for Indian importers by five per cent to seven per cent. Also, Bangladesh has the advantage of having lower minimum wages than those in India. This has the effect of reducing the cost of production and making clothing cheaper. Another factor which makes Bangladesh competitive is the fact that it enjoys duty free imports of fabrics and garments from China. The availability of cheaper fabric, too, brings down manufacturing costs. Lastly, India has a lot of small production units and factories. So if retailers want to procure 1,00,000 pieces, they’ll have to source them from several Indian garment producers, whereas they can procure the same easily in Bangladesh by placing the order to one or two firms.

The US and the EU together comprise 65 per cent of the market for Indian apparel exporters. There’s also a lot of potential that can be tapped in Japan, Australia, South America and the Middle East.

Hyosung has developed Creora ActiFit spandex. Multi-sport apparel made with Creora ActiFit spandex gives athletes the confidence they need to focus on their sport and not be bothered by what they are wearing. The spandex provides long-lasting durability, UV and chlorine resistance, and superior recovery required of cycling, swimming, triathlon and adventure racing apparel where athletes can encounter numerous environmental surroundings – whether it be salt water, intense sun or a rocky crag.

Previously, there were clear lines between ready-to-wear, sportswear and outdoor wear, but now there are no boundaries among them. People want both fashion and function. This trend has led outdoor brands to make fashionable outerwear designed for commuters and fashion brands to add function to daily wear – and even luxury-fashion apparel. It also led Hyosung to create its new Creora ActiFit spandex.

Hyosung is a Korean fiber and yarn company. Hyosung is the largest elastane producer in the world and first developed its own process for manufacturing spandex in 1992. Creora is a brand belonging to Hyosung. Hyosung offers a broad range of high quality, competitively-priced fiber technologies throughout the global apparel value chain. The spandex range includes Creora dyeable spandex, Creora black spandex and Creora fresh spandex.

For the first quarter, Guess’ revenues were up three per cent compared to the previous-year quarter. Sales in Americas were the strongest of the geographic areas, with retail revenues climbing three per cent and retail comps including e-commerce up four per cent during the quarter. Revenues in Europe inched up 2.2 per cent, but Asia only saw sales growth of 1.4 per cent. In the long term, China is still considered a revenue growth area even though business has been slow there. Guess has stores in 34 of the top 60 cities in China, and 90 per cent are directly operated.

Retail sales including e-commerce decreased 15 per cent. The company’s e-commerce sales make up 12 per cent of its revenues. Guess is taking action to mitigate potential tariffs, from cost sharing with its suppliers to shifting sourcing to other countries. The company is raising prices if the product can deliver and offsetting cost increases with other cost-saving initiatives. Denim will be a focal point in this summer’s marketing campaign, and there will be more denim in the stores this summer and fall. The brand has a number of key products including denim, accessories, and men’s. To better serve the customer, the company is creating two design teams to manage its contemporary label Marciano.

Exporters in Pakistan want to be paid their sales tax claims in 60 days. They say their money is used as part of a tax revenue collection effort. Consultations with exporters are ongoing on all issues including taxation, tariffs and gas and power pricing. Inputs are being solicited from all stakeholders and a decision will be taken in the coming days.

Pakistan may have a reduced sales tax rate of 7.5 per cent — instead of the standard rate of 17 per cent — across the textile value chain, starting from the spinning sector. The abolition of the zero-rating regime also affects four other industries —surgical instruments, sports goods, carpets and leather goods. Small and medium sized exporters fear the discontinuation of the zero-rating facility will ruin them.

Pakistan is under immense pressure from the International Monetary Fund to remove tax exemptions to increase revenues. The Fund wants Pakistan to withdraw the facility in the forthcoming budget as part of the deal. Both the IMF and Pakistan are of the view that the facility has been misused by the industry to steal sales tax on their domestic sales. The Fund also wants incentives to exporters to be withdrawn and focus be given on boosting exports through the market-driven exchange rate.

Digitization has entered the supply chain of the fashion sector.

This opens the door to new metrics, the simplification of processes and greater coordination with the rest of the actors. Digitization implies the incorporation of new systems in factories. Digitizing the supply chain implies accelerating personalization, traceability and transparency. One major digital challenge is traceability: the union of all points of an ultra-fragmented value chain. Traceability involves migrating to more flat and digitized chains that allow distribution groups to have control. Each of the links in the chain has to give value to suppliers, manufacturers, traders, purchasing agents and logistics. The data will not only help make internal measurements but also to unite different actors of the value chain.

Access to data and its management allows the relationship between the consumer, the brand and suppliers to be much narrower and more individualized. The idea is for brands to adapt their products to users who are looking for more and more specific information. Technology ensures macro to become micro without repercussion on speed or cost.

One of the technological pillars of this new model is the application of programming interfaces, systems connectors that exchange the information of a company with its suppliers.

Consumers the world over plan to switch brands if another brand acts more environmentally.

But the fashion industry is still far from sustainable. Fashion companies are not implementing sustainable solutions fast enough to counterbalance the negative environmental and social impacts of the rapidly growing fashion industry. Companies in the first quartile slowed in their trajectory this year due to increased challenges in scaling up proven measures into deeper tiers of their supply chains, in inventing and scaling transformative technologies and in achieving tangible results from collaborative initiatives. The required resources, capabilities, funding and advanced technologies in the aforementioned areas are not yet fully established.

Nevertheless, efforts are visible. Companies are investing in supplier relationships, supply chain traceability, an improved material mix and changes to their business model towards circularity. In the third performance quartile he largest year-on-year improvements were mainly driven by small mid-price and medium-entry-price players by adopting sustainable strategy development and governance, by setting targets in energy, chemicals and water savings, and by aligning association affiliations.

The fashion industry must overcome its roadblocks to achieve more substantial improvements that lead to a systemic change. Solving the challenges of scaling and innovating disruptive technologies is a necessity for future progress.

Bangladesh’s sweater manufacturers are switching over to an automated production system. The main purpose is to grab the growing demand for value-added items. Also because complexities over worker payments are being faced by the knits segment and automation is taking place. An automated jacquard machine is not only able to produce diversified and fashionable products, it can also fabricate critical designs, not possible with the manual ones. Though automation results in job loss, it increases productivity, helps produce more designed-based sweaters with embroidery and value-addition. While a manual machine costs $300 to $700 dollars, an automated jacquard machine ranges between $2,000 to $30,000. While a manual machine needs one operator and can produce a maximum of five pieces a day, an automatic machine, operated by a single operator, can produce about 30 pieces a day.

Bangladesh has about 786 sweater factories, employing around 7,00,000 workers. Sweaters are among the top five readymade garment exports of Bangladesh. Jerseys, pullovers, cardigans and waistcoats are the major items shipped to the European Union, the US and Canada. France, Germany, Italy, UK, Spain and Poland are the major EU markets while Japan and Russia are the potential non-traditional markets for sweaters.

Versace, the fast fashion brand from Italy, plans to expand its store network across Asia with focus on China. The brand will soon open its largest ever store in China. It also plans to launch dozens of outlets every year, besides revamping all its old stores. The entire objective is to the increase the annual sales of the brand by two times and the opening of the biggest store in Beijing is one step in that direction.

Of its existing 188 stores globally, over half of them is in Asia alone, with China incredibly boasting 40 of them. The brand now plans to increase the number of global stores to 300 by the year 2022, and yet again the focus is on Asia. The brand will invest a lot on its marketing as it now plans to go beyond its apparel products and focus on accessories as well. Notably, accessories at present account for only 30 per cent of company’s sales, which Versace soon intends to increase to 60 per cent.

Emerging as a global textile hub with huge potential, India needs to develop man-made fibre to remain competitive in the global market. The country aims to be a $350 billion textile industry by 2025 The country also aims to increase its textile exports to around $100 billion from the current $40 billion. It will focus on quality and other aspects to improve its competitiveness in the global market.

For this, India needs to create trade barriers for China to prevent it from dumping cheap textile products into India. It needs to address the issue of being cost driven rather than innovation driven. It also needs to develop and grow man-made fibre to remain competitive in the global market.

In order for manufacturers to attain competitiveness, the concepts of Textile 4.0 need to be integrated with manufacturing excellence. There is a lot of emphasis on sustainability and the world is looking at factories to reduce the use of resources and water. Companies should also reduce carbon footprints. India should present itself as a competitive manufacturing nation.