One of Europe’s biggest clothing retailers, Bestseller Fashion Group plans to close all 1,300 physical stores of its Selected menswear brand in China by July 2022. As per a Yicai Global report, Selected mainly sells business formals and business casuals for men. The brand tried to revive its business by launching new technical and functional product lines such as Siver and upgrading to attract new generation of shoppers. However, the brand failed to attract shoppers to its stores.

It was also plagued by rising store rents, management fees and other expenses The brand said, the pandemic has led to huge changes in consumer demand, affecting China’s traditional retail industry. Founded in 1997, Selected entered the Chinese market in 2008 as the fourth brand under Bestseller China after Only, Vero Moda, and Jack & Jones. Bestseller has more than 10,000 stores in more than 40 countries.

Tirupur exporters expect a 23 per cent decline in FY23 garment exports as European apparel brands have reduced garment offtake from Tirupur and Noida by up to 25 per cent due to the uncertainty in the region about the fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The garment hub annually exports Rs 35,000 crore worth of goods. However, its exports volumes have declined due to lack of orders and high yarn prices which is delaying deliveries, says Raja Shanmugam, president, Tirupur Exporters Association (TEA).

Tirupur houses 2,000 knitwear garment export units and another 18,000 ancillary units that are suppliers to the knitwear units. These units have given a closure call on May 16 and 17 to protest against the rising yarn prices, notes Shanmugam

LalitThukral, President, Noida Apparel Export Cluster says, the units at Noida have seen a 15 per cent drop in orders from Europe. Unlike Tirupur, these sell high value items. Their base price for a garment is $5, which is likely to riseto $10. The cluster expects orders to remain low till the uncertainty in Europe continues.

The closure of global brands in Russia too has impacted Indian garment exporting units. Spanish fashion retailer Inditex that owns the Zara brand has halted trading in Russia, closing its 502 shops and stopping online sales a fortnight ago. H&M has also suspended operations in Russia following the invasion of Ukraine and imposition of sanctions. Spain's second-largest fashion retailer Mango has also announced temporarily closing its 120 Russian shops.

The first Mumbai edition of GartexTexprocess India was inaugurated by DarshanaJardosh, Union Minister of State for Textiles & Railways, Government of India at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.

The 2022 edition of GartexTexprocess opened with over 100 exhibitors and 250 brands. It will host the Denim Show, Fabric & Trims Show and Screen Print India under its umbrella

Supporting India’s aim of bolstering its manufacturing capabilities, the trade fair is showcasing more than 500 innovative, efficient and competitively-priced technologies in textile and garment making, denim production, trimmings and screen-printing. GartexTexprocess India Mumbai 2022 The mega exhibition has attracted apparel brands, design studios, fashion designers and merchandisers, trade body representatives, distributors, garment and textile machinery importers, exporters, wholesalers and many more

GartexTexprocess India is demonstrating textile and garment manufacturing and processing machines brands including Baba Textile Machinery (India), Balaji Sewing Machine, Cotton Council International, EH Turel& Company, Felix Schoeller, Gayatritex Engineers Pvt Ltd, Golden Laser India, Mehala Machines India, Orange O Tec Pvt Ltd, Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipment, Sera Machines, Sky Enterprises, Sewco Garment Solutions and Zoje.

Denim Show 2022 is also making its debut in Mumbai through the showcase of innovative, fashionable and sustainable denim products. India’s biggest denim brands such as Hyosung India, Jindal Worldwide, Arvind, Ginni International, Raymond UCO Denim, Bhaskar Denim, LNJ Denim, Oswal Denims, KG Denim, Nandan Denim, and Ashima Group are displaying their latest denim collections at the exhibition. Also making debut, The Fabric & Trims Show is depicting the evolving fashion trends by curating fashionable and apparel enhancing features like fabrics, trimmings, embellishments and accessories on the show floors.

Highlighting technical innovations & ‘green’ initiatives in the denim manufacturing, an exclusive Denim Talks series is set to present Digital manufacturing and Bio Dyeing technique for the first time in India while the first-ever Flash dyeing technique of indigo will be made public tomorrow on 13 May 2022.

Under the umbrella of GartexTexprocess India, Screen Print India is displaying new technological capabilities in digital textile and screen-printing, screen printing, digital sublimation, heat transfer and textile printing, from brands like DhavalColorChem, Konica Minolta, Skyscreen International, Stovec Industries, Epson India, etc.

Zara owner Inditex plans to buy 30 per cent of the recycled fabric produced by the Finnish company The Infinited Fiber Company for € 100 million ($104 million) for three years in a push to use more sustainable materials.

The purchase commitment will support Infinited Fiber's plans to open its first large capacity factory in 2024, when Inditex is due to start buying the Infinna premium recycled fiber made entirely of clothing waste.

Zara also launched a limited edition collection of clothes made with Infinna fiber. Inditex said earlier this year that 47 per cent of its garments sold in 2021 carried the Join Life label, meaning they have been produced with sustainable materials and processes. The biggest fast fashion group in the world, operates over 7,200 stores in 93 markets worldwide. The company also owns a number of other brands such as Zara Home, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Pull&Bear, Stradivarius, Uterqüean, etc.

As a part of its new Cotton and Wool Apparel (CAWA) Program, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) will grant $50 million in funds to assist eligible apparel manufacturers of worsted wool suits, sport coats, pants, or pima cotton dress shirts; pima cotton spinners; and wool fabric manufacturers and wool spinners.

A part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative and the Department’s efforts to help US’ food, agriculture and forestry sectors get back on track, the CAWA program supports eligible entities whohave experienced a decrease of at least 15 per cent in 2020 gross sales or consumption of eligible products. Payments to eligible entities will be based on their pre-pandemic market share

The relief will support American workers and the domestic pima cotton growers and wool producers who rely on this industry. USDA’s FSA national office is administering the direct payments which will be funded by the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Eligible entities must have filed an affidavit for a payment in any year from 2017 to 2021 for the Pima Agriculture Cotton Trust Fund or Agriculture Wool Apparel Manufacturers Trust Fund through USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS).

The Central Government plans to develop seven mega industrial estates in the Ludhiana Textile Park at the cost of Rs 4,445 crore

The ambitious industrial project, which has been approved under the PM Mitra scheme, will be set up over 1,000 acre at KoomKalan village in the industrial capital of the state as a joint venture between the Centre and Punjab.

The project will be established over a period of five years up to 2027-28 at the cost of Rs 4,445 crore, which has been approved under the scheme.

A special purpose vehicle (SPV) with 51 per cent equity from the Punjab Government and 49 per cent from the Central Government will be set up by the state government for implementing the PM Mitra scheme project. The state government will transfer the land at notional price to the SPV.

Under the Competitive Incentive Support (CIS), an outlay of Rs 300 crore has been earmarked for Textile Park, which will be incurred towards giving incentive at the rate of 3 per cent of sales turnover of manufacturing facilities in the park on first-come first-serve basis.

Putting an incentive capping, the government will offer Rs 10-30 crore for investment over Rs 300 crore, Rs 5-15 crore for investment between Rs 100-300 crore, and Rs 1-3 crore for investment of less than Rs 100 crore with an employment generation of over 100 employees.

The Ministry of Textiles will develop model RFQ, RFP and concession agreement for selection of master developer in parallel with preliminary selection of sites with the assistance of PMA.

Insufficient power and energy supplies have failed to discourage Bangladesh entrepreneurs from investing in the country’s RMG sector, witnessing excellent flow of work orders. Big domestic entrepreneurs like the Team Group, Urmi Group, RDM and Sheltech are expanding their garment manufacturing capacities to corner a bigger market share. They entrepreneurs are setting up new facilities in rented buildings with a minimum investment of Tk5 crore.

So far, 160 big and small companies have invested approximately Tk4,000 crore to set up knit, woven and denim factories in Bangladesh, says a Business Standard report. Their total investments in the sector is between Tk18,000-Tk20,000 crore.

Aim to grow garment exports to $1 billion by 2026

Around Tk720 crore has been invested by the Team Group to develop an industrial village housing a denim factory with 32 production lines, a washing plant, a sweater factory, and a blouse manufacturing unit.

The project will allow exporters to influence the growing global apparel market in which Bangladesh has a major stake, opines Abdulla Hil Rakib, Managing Director, Team Group. The new units will commence production by 2023, he informs. Besides adding $90 million to the group’s annual export turnover, the facilities will also create jobs for 5,000 people, hopes Rakib. They will boost Bangladesh’s annual apparel exports to $1billion by 2026, as the country graduates from being LDC to a developing country.

High-value products with latest technologies

Real estate pioneer, Sheltech Group plans to set up a denim garment and a knit composite factory in Bangladesh by 2023, says Engr Ktubuddin Ahmed, Chairman, Envoy Textiles. These eco-friendly factories will produce high-end apparels. Both factories will be developed as a joint venture with well known international garment maker and manufacture of high-value apparels. They will produce high-value garments with latest technologies for high-end buyers, Ahmed says.

Urmi Group has also expanded with a new garment factory in Tejgaon. The unit set up with an investment of Tk120 crore has 40 production lines. It has generated about 3,000 jobs, claims Asif Asraf, Managing Director. At present it employs around 1,400 with more hiring in the offing. The unit’s turnover is also set to reach $200 million by the end of this year.

Chattogram-based RDM Group plans to establish a 12-line capacity garment factory by the end of this year. The group also own seven production units.

BGMEA, BKMEA add new members

Planning to set up new units, around 14 new groups obtained provisional memberships of the BGMEA this year, confirms Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, Vice President, BGMEA. Around 110 new factories obtained BGMEA memberships for setting up new factories in Bangladesh, adds Sahidullah Azim, Vice-President. Around 50 factories have approached BKMEA for permissions to import garment machinery, says Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, Vice-President. Most of these factories are expanding their production capacities, he adds

A few entrepreneurs are setting up factories despite the ongoing energy crisis. They plan to negotiate increased prices with buyers. These new factories will help entrepreneurs bag new work orders in the next two-three years, informs Shamim.

In March 2022, the situation of textile business across all regions and segments remained positive with +14 percentage points reveals the 13th ITMF Corona Survey conducted amongst over 220 companies across the world. As per the survey of all segments in the textile value chain, around 43 per cent companies considered their situation satisfactory during the month, indicating strong demand for their products. However, positivity in textile business remained below the +26 percentage points seen in November 2021 and +18 percentage points observed in January 2022.

Rebalancing supply chain key for future growth

Over the next six months, the global textile value chain remains quite optimistic about its growth prospects. However, this optimism rests on a much weaker foundation because since September 2021, the gap between more favorable and less favorable business expectations has narrowed from +32pp to +7pp. This clearly indicates the textile value chain has already achieved peak growth levels in Q4 of FY 2021.

Now, whether economic growth will slacken in future or spread across categories will largely depend on rebalancing disrupted global supply chains and outcome of the Russia-Ukraine war. As per ITMF survey, the outlook for textile business remains positive across all regions except East Asia and Africa where more companies expect the business situation to remain negative than those expecting positivity. On the other hand, companies expect the business situation in North, South America and Africa to remain largely positive

Upstream segment shows positive growth

Among segments, the business situation for downstream segments like weaver, knitters, finishers, printers, and garment and home textile producers remain negative at the same time upstream segments like fiber producers, spinners, and textile machinery producers, remain positive; especially in terms of passing on the higher costs to consumers.

The business situation for order consumption remains largely negative with order intake falling from +38pp in November 2021 to +12 percentage points in March 2022. Expectations for new orders also deteriorated from +34 percentage points in January to +22percentage points in March 2022.

Order backlog to stabilize at 2.9 months

The order backlog for textile manufacturers has risen from 2.3 to 3.1 months since 2021. This is expected to remain constant at 2.9 months. Manufacturers are utilizing 80 per cent of current capacities and will continue to do so despite persistent supply chain bottlenecks, the survey states.

The survey also indicates, higher cost of raw materials, energy and transportation are main cause of concerns for textile companies across the world. They are also likely to be troubled by weaker demand and their ability to pass on only 40 per cent of additional costs to consumers.

Guess, Inc. has entered into a €250 million revolving credit facility through its wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary, Guess Europe Sagl. The facility has an initial term of five years, with an option to extend the maturity date by up to two years and an option to expand the facility by up to €100 million, subject to certain conditions. The new facility replaced certain short-term borrowing arrangements with various banks totaling €120 million.

The Guess Sustainability Plan focuses on three key pillars including operating with integrity, empowering our people and protecting the environment. In line with the third pillar, the interest rate for the new facility will be subject to an annual adjustment based on the achievement of specific sustainability goals aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the use of sustainably sourced materials and increasing the penetration of the Company’s Guess ECO products.

Making its third attempt to enter China, renowned US apparel retailer Forever 21 plans to launch a new bricks-and-mortar store in the country by June end.

As per an Apparel Resources report, the fashion retailer will open its physical store at the Jingjiang Impression City shopping centre in Taizhou. The brand tried to re-enter China last year by selling exclusively online through platforms such as Vipshop and Pinduoduo.It also launched a store on Alibaba’s Tmall marketplace.

Founded in 1984, Forever 21 sells accessories, beauty products, home goods and apparels for women, men and children. The brand is a fashion retailer of women's, men's and kids clothing and accessories and is known for offering the hottest, most current fashion trends at a great value to consumers.

In July 2016, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail acquired the exclusive online and offline rights to the India network of Forever 21. The brand reaches out to customers in over 300 towns and cities of the country to meet the aspirations of the fashion conscious women and men. It is one of the most searched brands online and occupies a unique position in the fast fashion space.