Expecting online sales to cross the Rs 10,000 crore mark soon, Arvind Fashions has made huge investments in various digital channels. Not only does the company sell on all third party portals, it has also scaled up its own website, said Kulin Lalbhai, Director to the Economic Times. Currently, the company is integrating stores with online channels ramp up sales.

Positive results from Flipkart partnership

Having seen incredible traction last quarter, Arvind Fashions has collaborated with Flipkart to build its brand Flying Machine. The partnership will help Arvind Fashions explore the best of both worlds, Lalbhai feels as it combines Flipkart’s reach and analytics with Arvind’s brand building capabilities and supply chain. The partnership is already yielding positive results with territory sales of Flying Machine growing almost 70 per cent during the festive season.

Sales recovery with efficient cost management

The company’s offline sales are also promising, says Lalbhai. It saw healthy recovery in January sales and expects the trend to continue. It also plans to get a lot of fresh merchandise in stores from February onwards, he adds. Meanwhile Arvind Fashions managed to cut down a few of costs like temporary rental reductions and other costs during the pandemic. Though these costs are expected to rise again, the company has done a lot of structural cost savings, adds Lalbhai. It has not only reduced employee headcount but also cut supply chain costs. Arvind Fashions is also working on raw material costs and plans to introduce new strategies to prevent margin dilution and price corrections due to an increase in prices.

Robust revenues in Q2 & Q3

The company clocked in robust revenue growth in both second and third quarter of the current financial year and had a much better bottom line. Currently its offline sales have recovered to 70 per cent of pre-COVID levels while online sales are 230 per cent of last year. Adjusted for the Ind-As accounting, the company’s EBITDA is also much better last year’s third quarter. Most of its brands are gaining market share through sales on Flipkart and the company expects the trend to continue

Casual wear to drive future growth

Lalbhai believes, current casualization trend is not a response to COVID but existed even before that. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend with workwear transforming from formal to semi-formal. He expects casual wear brands like Tommy, Calvin Klein, US Polo to continue growing and emerge stronger from the pandemic. T-shirts and polos will lead casual wear growth post COVID, says Lalbhai. He also expects rapid growth for the footwear segment in times to come.

Industry organization Textile Exchange has named Bangladeshi certification services provider GSCS International as its latest member.

The companies are formalizing a licensing agreement that will entitle the Dhaka-based firm to accredit companies with the Global Recycled Standard (GRS), Recycled Claim Standard (RCS), Organic Content Standard (OCS), Responsible Down Standard (RDS) and Responsible Wool Standard (RWS).

GSCS International provides assessment, audit inspection, certification and training services worldwide, though its headquarters are in the key apparel manufacturing nation of Bangladesh – which is the second largest clothing exporter globally.

The company claims its offering “goes beyond simple compliance with regulations and standards”, as it encourages companies to promote and uphold sustainable best practices, which it says can improve performances and vindicate the preservation of natural resources.

As it secures a licensing agreement with Textile Exchange, GSCS will become a certified provider of the Vancouver organization’s portfolio of textile standards.

A new research from UK-based website SaveOnEnergy warns visits to popular fashion retailers’ websites could potentially contribute to CO2 generation. The research surveyed 20 most populated UK cities across the UK and at 25 retailers, including Next, Asos, Zara, and Shein. It names Next as the largest contributor to CO2, in the UK with 5,100,000 average monthly searches.

Online retailer Boohoo was the second-biggest producer, with potentially 10,815kg of CO2 emitted per month – equivalent to driving 26,836 miles. PrettyLittleThing was found to be the potentially lowest monthly contributor, producing only 142kg of CO2 per month. One visit to PrettyLittleThing’s website generates 2.34g of carbon dioxide.

The survey states, London generated the most CO2 from fast-fashion retailers with an average of 9,005kg of CO2 produced from website visits per month. For Asos alone, London had an average of 673,000 searches. Birmingham came second after London and Liverpool third. In ninth place was Edinburgh, potentially producing 601kg per month from searches, and tenth place was Belfast, producing around 597kg of carbon dioxide per month.

Uzbekistan aims to produce approximately 3.1 million cotton bales in the marketing year (MY) 2020-21. Its cotton production area will be 980,000 hectares, says a report by international textile magazine, Textilegence. As a part of its new marketing strategy, Uzbekistan plans to sell cotton not as a raw material but as products to the global market. Its domestic consumption is estimated to be 2.75 million bales in 2020/21. On the other hand, raw cotton exports are expected to remain at 50 thousand tonne.

The Uzbekistan government is encouraging new partnerships to increase local cotton use. It has approved new textile investments and factories. Existing textile factories continue to increase their capacities. Government officials aim to use all local cotton production in the country’s own textile sector in the 2020-21 marketing year, due to the rapid increase in domestic consumption.

The government will also provide tax, customs and land benefits to foreign companies through clusters to encourage investment and promote vertical integration in the textile and clothing industry.

L Brands has promoted Martin Waters, the current CEO of Victoria’s Secret’s lingerie division as the new CEO of the entire business. Waters will report directly to Andrew Meslow, CEO of parent company L Brands. Amy Hauk, CEO, Victoria’s Secret Pink while Greg Unis, CEO of Victoria’s Secret Beauty, will report to Waters.

An experienced retail executive, Waters has led Victoria’s Secret’s international business for the past 13 years and had recently stepped into the role of CEO, Victoria’s Secret Lingerie. The company also revealed that Stuart Burgdoerfer will retire as chief financial officer of L Brands and interim chief executive officer of the Victoria’s Secret business. However, he will remain in the CFO role, however, until August, helping finalize the separation of the Victoria’s Secret’s business — which includes the lingerie, beauty and Pink divisions— and Bath & Body Works brand. The spin-off, which the company anticipates will be complete by August, will take Victoria’s Secret private, while Bath & Body Works remains on the public market as a stand-alone firm.

Top luxury groups Capri Holdings, Prada and Kering have launched three new projects on environmental protection and social responsibility. Capri Holdings has launched the Capri Holdings Foundation for the Advancement of Diversity in Fashion. The foundation aims to support diversity, inclusion and equality across the fashion industry and has pledged $20 million investment. It will develop on-campus recruitment, mentorship and scholarship programs to prepare students for successful careers in the fashion industry.

Prada aims to promote the inclusion and unlock the value of disabled people within multinational corporations. The brand is currently assessing various practical solutions to establish a long-term inclusivity action plan, starting with the hiring of people suffering from down's syndrome within its commercial organisation in Italy. French luxury group Kering has set up the Regenerative Fund for Nature together with Conservation International, a non-profit organization promoting biodiversity.

Over the next five years, the brand aims to convert to regenerative agriculture 1 million hectares of farmland and landscape where raw materials for the fashion supply chain are grown. The fund will provide direct support to farmers by financing projects in a number of countries. The first round of funding is open for applications until April 30 2021.

The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) has benchmarked the Greek AGRO-2 Integrated Management Standards as an equivalent to the Better Cotton Standard System. A Textilegence report says, this will promote sustainable cotton farming in Greece, Europe’s largest cotton producer. The development will enable AGRO-2 certified farmers participating in the BCI Program sell their cotton as Better Cotton from the 2020-21 cotton season. By the end of 2022, 5,000 farmers will grow AGRO-2 licensed cotton (equivalent to Better Cotton), on 40,000 hectare, producing around 185,000 bales.

The AGRO-2 Integrated Management Standards were developed by the national Hellenic Agricultural Organization, ELGO-DEMETER, a statutory body under the Ministry of Rural Development and Food. ELGO-DEMETER and the Inter-Branch Organization of Greek Cotton (DOV) – jointly ELGO-DOV – partnered to promote and implement the AGRO-2 standards for Greek cotton production.

The benchmarking of the AGRO-2 standards to the Better Cotton Standard System began in 2017 following interest expressed by Greek stakeholders. Upon completion, Greece began the official BCI country start-up process; culminating in the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement between BCI and ELGO-DOV; to recognize AGRO-2 certified cotton as equivalent to Better Cotton.

Dior is the undisputed winner in Launchmetrics survey of luxury industry’s marketing investments in aiding global markets. As per the survey, Dior’s marketing investments increased 3.6 per cent to $618.4 million in Q4 compared to the third quarter of the year. Chanel bagged second place with a marketing investment of $498.5 million, up 12.6 per cent quarter over quarter, while Gucci came in third with an marketing investment of $454.7 million, representing a 22.9 per cent increase.

Louis Vuitton and Saint Laurent rounded out the top five, with marketing investments of $405.8 million and $246.1 million, respectively. Other big winners included Moncler, whose marketing investments increased by 58.4 per cent quarter-over-quarter which placed the brand in 20th place. .

Dior maintained its leading position across the different regions monitored by Launchmetrics, including China, Europe and the United States. Chanel, however, took second place in Europe, third place in the U.S., and fourth place in China. Gucci remained in third place in both Europe and China, but rose to second place in the United States.

Provider of solutions for a sustainable textile production, Bluesign, has revised its 2020 lists of chemical substances. The lists include toxicological and ecological profile of these substances, their legal classification and new legal consumer safety limits. The revision also includes revised risk assessments based on the Bluesign Critera for chemical assessment, feedback from experts of the Chemical Experts Group (CEG) as well as new analytical standards. It provides an updated list of restrictions on chemical substances published in: BSSL (Bluesign System Substances List); BSBL (Bluesign System Black Limits); and Bluesign RSL.

The BSBL specifies threshold limits for chemical substances in finished chemical products such as auxiliaries or dyes. The compilation of substances in the BSBL includes all substances for which a precautionary hazard-based threshold limit is defined.

The Bluesign RSL is an extract of the BSSL and contains consumer safety limits and recommended testing methods for the most important and legally restricted substances in textile and leather articles and accessories.

Provisional data released by Ministry of Commerce and Industry reveals, India’s apparel exports declined by 24.52 per cent during 2020. India was able to ship apparels worth $12.26 billion in 2020 as against $16.25 billion in 2019 as market sentiments were down due to COVID-19. The country shipped most garments in September when its exports grew by 10.22 per cent Y-o-Y to $1.19 billion.

However, in the remaining months, apparel exports continued to decline. The year 2020 witnessed a heavy negative trajectory in apparel exports. The US remained the largest export destination in 2020 with shipments worth $3.30 billion though these declined by 24.04 per cent on Y-o-Y basis.

The second biggest importer was UAE which imported apparels worth $1.52 billion during the year which was a 18.47 per cent decline from the previous year. UK was the top destination for India in Europe as it shipped apparels worth $1.12 billion to the country, a 29.24 per cent yearly decline.