A one stop shop for consumers’ product needs across home, gift and fashion sectors, the Design & Source fair will be held under the aegis of Autumn Fair 2022 at NEC Birmingham from September 04-07, 2022. Featuring over 100 global manufacturers of homewares, textiles, gifts, stationary, fashion and toys, the fair will focus on responsible and sustainable production. With a line-up of top manufacturers, Design & Source will focus on sustainable and ethical production.

Helping young minds and souls evolve and enrich

Offering a wide range of products from dolls and soft toys to outdoor games, educational toys, sound and light toys, India’s Salasar (Webby Toys) will showcase its range that helps enrich and evolve young minds and souls. Funride Toys another Indian toy maker that offers trikes, scooters, walkers and ride-on toys will also showcase its range. Suzanne Ellingham, Sourcing Director, Autumn Fair says, “The Indian Pavilion helps buyers discover more sustainably made products from quality manufacturers. Trade organizers need to encourage more such manufacturers that align with their products with new products in the UK market.’’

Besides sustainable toy manufacturers, the trade fair will showcase Indian manufacturers, of table and kitchenware, sports, clothing, and bag manufacturers, etc including, 3ACE international, ARNIKA-A Designer Studio and Allene Overseas

An able support to the retail industry

UK’s most vibrant marketplaces for wholesale home, gift, fashion and sourcing, Spring and Autumn Fair is the definitive ‘shop for shops’, that supports the retail industry. Located in the centre of the UK at the NEC in Birmingham, Spring and Autumn Fair is accessible to independent, multiple, or online designers, contractors and suppliers from UK and across the world every February and September.

The Punjab government has decided to construct a mega textile park in Fatehgarh Sahib.

It had earlier planned to construct the park near the protected Mattewara forest in Ludhiana. However, the plan was scrapped following a public outcry.

Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister will write a demi-official letter to Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce and Industry, requesting him to accept the proposal with a changed location,”said an official.

As per reports, the park will be built in around 1,000 acre in Fatehgarh Sahib. With 700 acre already acquired, another 300 acre will be acquired soon.

The Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Park, under the PM-MITRA scheme will help in generating employment besides boosting exports from the state.

Revenues from the sales of polyester yarn will grow by 20 per cent this fiscal on healthy demand, and increased blending with cotton yarn.

As per a CRISIL report, better profitability and expected modest capital spending will improve credit profiles of polyester yarn manufacturers. Last years, revenues from the sector grew by 60 per cent owing to a recovery in demand from end-user segments and price-hikes while sales volumes grew by 15 per cent.

Demand is expected to remain healthy this fiscal too, with garments and home textiles segments expected to grow at 16-18 per cent and 12-13 per cent in fiscal 2023, respectively, driven by recovery in domestic demand and moderate growth in exports.

Gautam Shahi, Director, CRISIL Ratings, says, polyester yarn’s cost effectiveness to blend with cotton yarn has increased its demand in the market.

With an increased differential between cotton and polyester yarn prices to sustain, the ratings agency expects 4-5 per cent of cotton yarn demand to shift to polyester yarn, adds Shahi. This shift is expected to continue for most part of this fiscal as end user segments operate in a price-competitive environment.

Lenzing recently signed the Dutch Denim Deal, a public-private initiative that calls for a new industry standard to use 5 per cent post-consumer recycled (PCR) cotton in the production of all denim clothing.

The deal was originally initiated by the House of Denim Foundation in Amsterdam and later supported by the Dutch government. It was signed in October 2020 by the entire denim industry and some municipal stakeholders in the Amsterdam metropolitan area following the EU Green Deal and the Circular Action Plan, and the brand side includes more than 40 signatories such as PVH Europe, Scotch & Soda and Kings of Indigo, as well as Calik Denim, Mud Jeans, Bossa, AGI Denim, Kipas, Ereks and Recover from the supply chain.

The initiative also includes a goal to produce 3 million pairs of jeans by 2023 using 20 percent post-consumer recycled cotton—brand owners and retailers will achieve a minimum of 5 per cent PCR content in their own denim collections by this time, which seems much difficult. Lenzing’s participation will help bring the initiative closer to its goal.

Lenzing is a raw material supplier ready to help other companies reach this goal. In 2017 Lenzing pioneered Tencel ™ lyocell with Refibra ™ technology, which is now produced with 30 per cent post-industry and post-consumer cotton waste and 70 per cent wood pulp. A Fiber ID has also been added to ensure traceability and transparency.

Expanding its retail network, H&M has opened new stores in Costa Rica and North Macedonia, as well as online in Uruguay.

The Swedish fashion retail giant made its debut in Costa Rica in Central America on August 20 with a store in San José, Escazú.

This was followed by a new European store in North Macedonia in the the East Gate Mall in Skopje on August 18. The new 2,300 sq m store in Skopje offers the brand’s full fashion line-up.

Finally, the brand made an online debut in Uruguay following four years of physical presence in the country. Uy.hm.com is H&M’s 57th online market and Uruguay is only the fourth South American country to have a dedicated webstore.

Omnichannel eyewear retailer Lenskart plans to shift its entire manufacturing operations in Southeast Asia, including for its recently-acquired Japanese eyewear chain Owndays, to its largest manufacturing unit in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan.

The fully-automated facility uses mobile bots and can cater to up to 100 million customers every year. It is aimed at helping Lenskart grow production manifold and boost margins, said one of the people cited above.

SoftBank-backed Lenskart, which is planning a public listing by the end of 2023, currently has a revenue run rate of Rs 2,800-2,900 crore.

With the merger, Lenskart now has access to around 13 markets in Asia, including India, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan.

The Bhiwadi facility comprises a lens lab and frame manufacturing centre. This unit will also handle distribution of specialized stock keeping units (SKUs) such as sunglasses. Omnichannel distribution requires the use of technology, and Lenskart has been investing in a highly-automated distribution centre, capable of delivering more than 200,000 eyewear daily for the Indian and overseas markets.

To design and implement this modern distribution centre, Lenskart has partnered with robotics firm Addverb Technologies.

Orders for apparel exporters in Bangladesh have been falling with a rise in inflation, global recession and Russia-Ukraine war. As per a Daily Star report, the decline is also resulting from inventory pile up by retailers and brands amid tightening budgets by Western consumers, particularly in Europe.

Fall of orders threatens forex reserves

This could prove as a major blow to the apparel sector in Bangladesh, one of its biggest forex earners. Last fiscal, the RMG sector accounted for about 85 per cent of Bangladesh’s export earnings of over $52 billion. With orders for over three months on an average, one of Bangladesh’s top exporters, Envoy Textiles currently has less than a month’s order in hand, informs Kutubuddin Ahmed, Chairman. The company’s buyers are concerned about piled inventories as demand for garments has dipped due to a rise in inflation and threat of oncoming recession. Rising inflation in the Eurozone has encouraged Ahmed to shift production to low-cost fabrics to survive through difficult times.

Similarly, another garment exporter, Ha-Meem Group had plans to boost production capacity by 10 per cent to achieve exports worth $700 million in 2022. However, the target looks difficult as buyers are placing smaller orders due to the war, says AK Azad, Chairman.

Diversifying to the US

To maintain good business growth the DBL Group, another top exporter has diversified its markets. Instead of the EU, the group has started focusing on the US and exporting over 10 per cent of its total exports there. The group had set a target of exporting garments worth $500 million in the current fiscal.

Yet, to be hit by lower orders, one of Bangladesh’s top fabric maker and exporter, Mahin Group, does not predict a bright outlook for the future as buyers are already voicing concerns about looming recession and rising inflation, says Abdullah, Al Mahmud, Managing Director. The Mahin Group is also being saddled with rising inventories as a few buyers are not accepting deliveries of Russia-bound goods with European retailers/brands closing their outlets in the country.

Buyers offer lower prices

Taking advantage of the situation, a few buyers are offering lower prices for goods, alleges Nusrat Bari Asha, Managing Director, Benetex. The sector has also been receiving 30 per cent fewer orders for the last two seasons, points out Md Shahidullah Azim, Acting President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.(BGMEA)

All garment buyers from Bangladesh, Walmart, Target, Kohl's, have decided to cancel orders to deal with their inventory issues as global demand for apparel declines. Big buyers including Gap, Costco and H&M are also cutting back orders led by the Russia-Ukraine war, global inflationary trend, supply chain crisis and inventory pile up, adds Asif Ibrahim, Vice-Chairman, Newage Group.

John Railey, Chief Financial Officer, Walmart informs, the company cancelled orders worth billions of dollars to deal with inventory issues. Target too has cancelled orders worth $1.5 billion for discretionary products to avoid inventory pileup. On the other hand, Kohl’s is increasing product promotions besides pulling back on receipts, informs Jill Timm, Chief Financial Officer.

Wrangler® has launched a licensed collegiate apparel collection in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin

Wrangler has teamed up with current and former student athletes, including Texas Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers and linebacker DeMarvionOvershown, baseball player Trey Faltine, swimmer Caspar Corbeau, softball players Lauren Burke and Mary Iakopo and volleyball players Molly Phillips, Asjia O’Neal and Madisen Skinner, in addition to a strong network of campus ambassadors to promote the collection to students, fans and alums.

Wrangler worked in collaboration with Colosseum Athletics, a leader in collegiate manufacturing, having over 700 license agreements with colleges and universities across the nation, as well as leading collegiate licensing company, CLC, to design and produce this collegiate collection.

An additional 31 collegiate institutions will roll out with customized Wrangler gear throughout September including Auburn University, Florida State University, Iowa State University, Louisiana State University, Michigan State University, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Purdue University, Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, University of Alabama, University of Florida, University of Mississippi, University of Nebraska, University of Oklahoma, University of South Carolina and the University of Tennessee.

Feeling the heat of volatile Europe, Turkish apparel exporters have reduced export growth target by 15 per cent. Latest figures indicate that Turkish garment exports remained fluctuating in recent past.

According to an office bearer of TOBB (Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey) Garment and Apparel Council, Turkey has reduced its year-end export growth target for the apparel industry from 15 per cent to barely any growth at all. He said that there is a slowdown in new orders from the US and European markets in recent months, and hence exports are anticipated to remain flat or only slightly up from last year.

According to the latest available data, Turkish garment exports increased to $1.798 billion in June 2022 but had registered a steep fall in May 2022 at $1.235 billion. Exports were $1.869 billion in April, $1.835 billion in March, $1.655 billion in February and $1.413 billion in January 2022. Turkish garment exports declined in last three quarterly consecutively. The exports dropped from $4.944 billion of October-December 2021 to $4.905 billion in January-March 2022. It further decreased $4.903 billion in latest April-June quarter.

Turkiye is heavily dependent on European market for garment exports. In 2021, the country had exported garments worth $13.702 billion to Europe out of its total export of $17.570 billion in 2021. It means the country had exported 77.98 per cent of its garment to a single region. Currently, Europe is facing a series of challenges including supply disruption of crude oil and other commodities which fuelled inflation not only in Europe but also in other regions of the world.

Of the $48.176 billion worth of apparels imported by the US during first half of this year, trousers & shorts topped with a share of 26.52 per cent. Together, the top three items; trousers & shorts, jerseys and T-shirts accounted for over 50 per cent of the total apparel import during the same period.

The US trousers & shorts imports increased by 37.31 per cent to $12.777 billion in the first six months of this year. Jerseys constituted the second largest apparel product with import of $7.533 billion or 15.64 per cent of the total import. The same trend was noted for last three years in terms of import value of the item during the first half. Jerseys import surged 37.08 per cent in January-June 2022 over the corresponding period of last year.

The import of T-shirts by the US was recorded at $4.658 billion (9.67 per cent) during the first half of current year. The import of top three items totaled 51.83 per cent of total apparel import in first half of this year. During January-June 2022, other major items of the US apparel imports were shirts (8.90 per cent), innerwear (8.45 per cent), dresses (6.54 per cent) baby wear (2.86 per cent), socks (2.63 per cent) and accessories (2.46 per cent).