Burberry aims to add 65 newly designed stores in FY23 to the 47 it rolled out last year. The brand continues to target high-single digit revenue growth and 20 per cent margins in the medium term. Despite significant disruption from lockdowns in Mainland China, its comparable store sales grew 1 per cent in Q1 FY23. The brand witnessed strongest growth in the EMEIA regions. Its focus categories, leather goods and outerwear, continued to perform well outside Mainland China. During the quarter, the brand continued to invest in brand and product, generating a high level of engagement on social media as well as driving traffic to its website and adding almost half a million new profiles to our global customer database.

In April, Burberry expanded its Lola handbag range and supported it with a series of pop-ups and pop-ins as well as a campaign, starring Bella Hadid, Lourdes Leon, Jourdan Dunn and Ella Richards. Alongside this, it also introduced a virtual collection on online gaming platform Roblox.  In May, the brand launched its seasonal TB Summer Monogram collection with a new campaign starring Gisele Bündchen. It also launched a collection at Neiman Marcus, wrapping the exterior of its store in Atlanta in the TB Monogram and opening a pop-up inside.

Burberry’s new product launches and seasonal collections performed strongly during the quarter. Its Leather goods comparable sales by grew 21 per cent outside of Mainland China, led by the Lola handbag range. Outerwear comparable sales increased 19 per cent outside of Mainland China, driven by rainwear and jackets.

In June, Burberry again collaborated with Mythical Games to launch a new NFT collection in their flagship title, Blankos Block Party. Mostly recently, Burberry roped in the South Korean Premier League footballer Son Heung-min as its new brand ambassador. 

Cotton Australia has announced the list of finalists for 2022 awards. As per a Textile Today report, the organizer received entrees from New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory for the award. Adam Kay, CEO, Cotton Australia says, presenting a challenge to judges, the response to the awards has been outstanding this year,

This year, finalists for the ‘Bayer Grower of the Year’ award include Corish Farms ‘Yattlewondi’ – Glen Harney, Manager, Talwood QLD; Sundown Pastoral Co, ‘Keytah’ Nick Gillingham, Manager, Moree NSW; and Graincott Farming Co ‘Kensington Park,’ Dan Hayllor, Dalby QLD.

The finalists  for the AgriRisk High Achiever Award  include ‘Tipperary Station,’ Bruce Connolly, Daly River NT’; Porter Farming ‘Attleigh,’ Grant Porter, Brookstead QLD; and Dalara Pastoral Operations, ‘Myall Park,’ Rob Davies, Blackville NSW.

The finalists in ‘ADAMA Chris Lehmann Trust Young Achiever of The Year’ include Lucas Wuersching, St George QLD; Bradley Donald, Moree NSW; and Jessica Strauch, Goondiwindi QLD.

The finalists in Cotton Seed Distributors Researcher of the Year are Cotton Landcare Tech Innovations project team – Stacey Vogel, Narrabri NSW; Dr Mick Rose, Wollongbar NSW; and Dr Oliver Knox, Armidale NSW. The judges will review all nominations before finalizing the winners who will be announced at this year’s Cotton Conference on the Gold Coast in August.

Formerly family-owned weaving mill Tissages d'Autan is collaborating with business management consultant VirgoCoop is promoting local and organic textile production in denim in France. The collaboration will focus on renewal of the organic textile hemp production and other fair-trade sectors in the Occitania region and beyond, says Mathieu Ebbesen, Co-Founder and Director,  Tissages d' Autan mill and President, VirgoCoop,

Ebbesen adds, the collaboration will also focus on producing good quality hemp. Currently, the mill produces new designs of exclusive fabrics using blends of wool and hemp. Even during 2018, the mill produced significant quantities of pure hemp yarn with its own French cultivar ‘Futura 75. However, it had to import hemp yarn to produce denims, Ebbesen adds.\

Now, VirgoCoop plans to breed a French monecious hemp variety that will be more uniform at harvest and which, in turn, will generate more homogenous fibers required by modern spinning lines. The company also plans to upgrade its current spinning machines to better handle long fiber, Ebbessen adds

The Textile Advisory Group (TAG) plans to develop a Yarn Index System to control the high volatility in Indian cotton yarn prices that have disrupted the entire textile value chain in recent months. Comprising senior officials from the Union ministries of textiles, agriculture and farmers’ welfare, commerce, as well as senior officials from the Cotton Corporation of India, R&D experts and stakeholders, TAG held its first meeting in May.

The Yarn Index System will improve predictability and reduce fluctuations in prices, opined TAG at the meeting.  It was also emphasized on the availability of data for improving policy formulation process. The TAG also advocated penal action to be taken on units not onboarding the textile commissioner’s portal. It also urged for faster TAG approval of new Bt cotton seed varieties to improve cotton yield. The meeting also suggested for a policy to discourage poor quality cotton and to provide premium for cleaner cotton.

The meeting zeroed in on the Cotton Association of India (CAI) to formulate a policy to encourage ginners to adopt better ginning practices. Further, it urged for steps to be taken for state-of-the-art testing to ensure quality and traceability of cotton products.

The meeting also discussed the long-pending demand from downstream industry to ban or discourage future trading in cotton. It also proposed, TAG will urge for reduction in speculative activity in MCX through industry and farmer representation in the product group and transparent specific delivery contracts.

Fast fashion brands across the US and the UK markets have increased price points across, reveals latest data from Stylumia. Based on latest analysis by KPMG, the report compares retail list price of select brands and retailers in the standard and fast-fashion segments. The performance of these brands and retailers is compared from March to May 2022 with the same period in 2021. 

The KPMG outlook presents three scenarios of global GDP growth rates. It indicates, the growth rates drop from 2021 levels in 2022 and 2023, returns to pre Covid rates. The inflation trend endings well above pre Covid times even in 2023 across all three scenarios.

Low impact of inflation on US consumers 

The report shows, in the US, demand for garments in the price range $20-$40 declined 57 per cent during the period whereas demand for fashion in the range $40-60 increased 60 per cent and demand for fashion in the range $60-80 grew 11 per cent. This indicates the low impact on consumers of rising inflation and a growing willingness to buy higher-priced apparels. 

In the UK, the 466 per cent growth in demand for tops priced above £10 and 243 per cent growth in demand for tops in the £10-£20 indicates a resistance to rising inflationary pressures. However, for women’s dresses category in the US, demand is not as resistant to increasing prices, the report shows. 

In the US, demand for women’s dresses priced below $40 declined 29 per cent while demand for dresses in the range of $40-$60 declined 12.5 per cent. This indicates, consumer behavior differs across categories and geographies.

UK markets reflects overall decline in demand 

In the UK market, demand for garments priced in the range of £0-£20 declined 76 per cent while those priced in the range of £20-£40 declined 4 per cent. The market also witnessed a 65 per cent decline in demand for garments priced in the range from £40-£60, indicating an overall decline in demand for garments in the country. 

Ensure right product prices

To boost sales, besides understanding their own data, brands need to understand holistic consumer demand across markets and categories, the report says. They need to ensure right pricing of products besides focusing on customization to capture a significant share in the market and generate revenues to make profits,.  

Gains for brands with flexible prices 

With demand-supply gap widening, brands’ inventories in the fixed priced apparel ranges might pileup, resulting in more markdowns. Demand across brands might shift to those altering their product prices as per demand. These brands might come out of this period with less damage in gross margin and market share than the others, the report concludes. 

From 2023, Berlin Fashion Week and Premium will be held simultaneously. From July 7 to 9, 2022, Premium opened its doors to the fashion world with a new format of fashion, business, content and entertainment. As the results of their initiative were perceived successfully, from 2023, Berlin Fashion Week and Premium Modemesse will be held simultaneously. 

This means in future the two events will bundle their specialist and consumer-focused formats in January and July respectively and will thus be able to make better use of synergies. Berlin's position as a meeting place for the fashion industry will thus be further strengthened.

The 2022 edition of Berlin Fashion Week will be held from September 5 for six-days. Premium is a unique trade platform for exclusive menswear, womenswear, contemporary fashion, luxury sportswear, designer denim, accessories and promising newcomers presenting designer collections. For the fashion market, Premium is the most important business platform in Europe for women and men. Long-term partnerships are formed here as well as new trends.

The fashion and textile industry is currently undergoing a period of fundamental transition. Technological developments and the strategic implementation of sustainability are showing how a collaborative approach to innovation makes this shift beneficial to all stakeholders. Sustainability, innovation and technology go hand in hand.

Indian garment exports are not likely to get much boost from the new additional arrangements for international trade in Indian rupees. One reason is that Europe and the US are the major markets for Indian apparel exports and buyers in these markets prefer to pay in dollars. Even, European buyers want to pay in dollars instead of their own currency. However, imports and exports of upstream textile products like cotton and yarn may benefit from the new arrangements put in place by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which has asked banks to make arrangement for trade transactions in rupees. Exports and imports of cotton and yarn may get some boost as there are many non-American and non-European countries where importers and exporters may consider transacting in rupees.

The Federation of Indian Exporters Organisation has said that the RBI’s move will pave the way for trading and settlement of export and import transactions in Indian rupees. The RBI has taken this step at a time when many countries in Africa and South America are facing huge forex shortages. So this move is expected to help exporters and importers.

The Southern India Mills Association has welcomed the RBI announcement as a relief to Indian exporters and importers, who have been facing challenges owing to the tightening of monetary policies all over the world. 

The global sewing machine market is growing at five per cent, reveals as study by Research and Markets.com. The study states the market is expected to reach $5.9 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 5.7% CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on type, the market is segmented into: electric, computerized and manual. The electric segment acquired the largest revenue share in the sewing machine market in 2021. Based on application, the market is segmented into: industrial, commercial and residential. The residential segment registered a significant revenue share in the sewing machine market in 2021.

The study finds, the apparel segment acquired the largest revenue share in the sewing machine market in 2021.

Based on regions, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, Middle East & Africa. Asia Pacific acquired the largest revenue share in 2021. China and Japan, contribute significantly to market revenue. The growing textile sector in developing countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam is also leading to high demand for sewing machines in the region. One of the most important driving forces for the region's growth is the increasing number of international corporations investing across the region. The availability of low-cost labor and materials throughout the region has helped the region's market income.

George Varghese is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) of Shahi Exports. He has experience of two decades across entrepreneurship, manufacturing, IT/ITES, retail and pharma. Varghese has worked with Himatsingka Seide, Accenture and Titan. In his previous role, he was serving as Head of Human Resources, Global Business Services, First Abu Dhabi Bank. He will now lead the people strategy at Shahi Exports.

Having around 55 factories across India, and with a workforce of nearly 1.25 lakh people, Shahi Exports is one of the most respected apparel export houses in India. It is also known for its employee-friendly policies and initiatives. Established in 1974 Shahi has vertically integrated operations, a diversified product range, and a strong commitment to ethical operations and environmental sustainability. The company operates textile mills to produce woven and knitted fabrics, sourcing high-quality cotton that is further processed into textiles for garments and other products. A significant proportion of the cotton sourced is certified as sustainable either by the Global Organic Textile Standard or the Better Cotton Initiative. Shahi’s textile mills manufacture garments for some of the world’s biggest

brands. An in-house design team and laboratory ensure seamless integration of customers’ needs from fiber to final product.

The Scheme for Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) has been extended till March 31, 2024. After the introduction of GST in 2017, the RoSL (Rebate of State Levies) scheme was replaced by a new scheme, the Rebate of State and Central Taxes Levies (RoSCTL) in March 2019. This scheme is meant for exports of apparel/garments and made-ups and the aim is to boost exports and job creation in the textile sector. 

RoSCTL is a forward-looking and growth-oriented scheme which has provided a stable and predictable policy regime, helping boost exports and employment. The scheme helped improve cost efficiency and the export competitiveness in the international market. 

It has also promoted incubation of start-ups and entrepreneurs in the domain and has also led to a large number of MSMEs joining the apparel export business. Micro, small and medium units in India are being provided an encouraging atmosphere. Their tax burden is being eased. The rate of corporate tax has been reduced to 25 per cent for companies with a turnover of up to Rs 250 crores. The threshold limit for applicability of presumptive taxation of business income has been increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crores.