Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, INDA will hold the physical edition of its 15th annual World of Wipes® (WOW) International Conference from July 12-15 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Georgia.

In this conference, WOW will explore the debate between the growing use of plastic in wipes, new developments in sustainability, growing emphasis on cleanliness brought on by COVID-19, emerging markets, regulatory changes, etc

This year’s event will open with a day and a half devoted to the WIPES Academy training and a Welcome Reception onsite. WOW will feature three days of cutting-edge conference program content, two days of tabletop displays, plus presentations from the three finalists and the announcement of the 2021 World of Wipes Innovation Award® as its finale.

The program also includes over 11 hours of face-to-face networking time to form new relationships and strengthen existing bonds over breakfasts and session breaks, the Welcome Reception, and other events to connect with industry peers.

The first session of presentations on July 13 will focus on issues related to new European Union (EU) regulations on single-use plastics and their impact on the North American wipes market.

Experts providing the latest insights on this vital topic include Anna Gergely, PhD, Director – EHS Regulatory, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, who will speak on Recent Developments Under the EU Green Deal and Plastics Strategy – Update on the Impact of the Pandemic.

Providing the perspective on the proposed Canadian plastic regulatory approach will be Karyn Schmidt, Senior Director, Chemical Regulation, Regulatory and Technical Affairs, American Chemistry Council (ACC) while Andrew Hackman, Principal Lobbyist, Serlin Haley, will talk about plastic policies in the various states within the US.

Though retail sales in the US declined by 3 per cent M-o-M basis in February, they increased by 2.2 per cent on Y-o-Y basis as compared to February 2019. As per the US Census Bureau retail report, apparel and accessories sales declined by 14.9 per cent in the same year-over-year comparison. Sales at department stores also declined by 17.9 per cent, says a Forbes report. Retailers now hope for Easter to boost pre-holiday sales in March.

Vaccine effectiveness and distribution directly impacts the economy Surge in vaccination rates and reopening of economy are expected to boost retail sales by around 8.2 per cent toover $4.33 trillion in 2021, says a report by National Retail Federation. Increase in vaccination will encourage shoppers to shop in physical stores and dine out.

Consumers will also be driven to increase their apparel expenditures due to their travel plans. Almost 68 per cent of millennials and 65 per cent of Gen Z have planned a trip abroad as compared to 57 per cent of Gen X and 42 per cent of baby boomers.

Barbara Rentler, CEO, Ross Stores expects its comparable store sales to strengthen over the year. As a result, the retailer plans to open approximately 60 new stores during fiscal 2021.

The return of typical weather patterns is driving apparel sales in North America, says Richard. A Hayne, CEO, Urban Outfitters. However, despite unfavorable weather in the first three weeks of February 2021, overall comparable store sales trend in the country was better than the fourth quarter trend of Fiscal 2020, noted TJX Companies.

Buying clothes and planning vacations

As per survey by Sezzle, a buy-now-pay-later solution provider, 39 per cent of respondents plan to take 2 to 3 vacations in 2021, with 76 per cent planning at least one vacation. Higher travel spends promote purchasing in apparel and accessories. The survey included 61 per cent respondents from the Gen Z and millennial generations and 39 per cent from Gen X and Baby Boomers. The top categories surveyed included clothing, shoes, beauty and jewelry.

Apparel’s slow recovery going forward

Ethan Chernofsky, Vice President-Marketing, Sezzle, says, the apparel sector was trending closely with overall retail visits in early January before severe weather conditions throughout the country depressed visits significantly. February has been a difficult month as severe weather patterns negatively impacted the North American business. However, post February. Urban Outfitters is seeing signs of improvement, especially in stores located in warmer climates.

February starts the spring season for many retailers

Though there are many signs of a positive trend for apparel and accessories, the continuing unpredictable environment has halted expansion plans of many retailers. COVID related factors are also impacting their future prospects. Hence, most retailers are comparing their 2021 sales to those recorded in 2019 as they do not deem 2020 sales to be suitable for comparisons.

Uster has launched the new Quantum 4.0 system. This world-beating innovation combines both capacitive and optical sensors in one – delivering comprehensive security, prevention and flexibility. The Smart Duo system offers the best of both worlds for intelligent yarn quality control and optimized profitability. It means mills can now focus on meeting the fast-moving market challenges, instead of pondering technical options.

For years, spinners have wished for a way to bring the best of different technologies together, for secure quality and maximum flexibility. Spinners can now access full security in quality control, ensuring the best clearing mode is applied. The Quantum 4.0 enables this through a simple Capacitive/Optical switch. This allows greater flexibility in the types of yarn which can be produced, while also dealing with factors such as humidity variations.

Today’s market trends show strong demand for compact yarns. Here, spinners can trust Quantum 4.0 to tap this potential and deal with any quality issues. The density feature, for example, protects mills from substandard cops caused by ring spinning malfunctions such as blocked compacting zones, or twist problems. The Smart Duo has the advantage of monitoring yarn density continuously and after every splice.

A further valuable innovation with Quantum 4.0 is the Blend Mix-up option, which now enables mills to identify mix-ups of different types of raw materials. This long-awaited market request detects any wrong raw material in greige and white yarns, combating the infamous, but serious, barré effect in fabrics. Cop mix-ups can happen in mills, since differences are hardly visible to the human eye. But Quantum 4.0 stops the problem before it becomes an issue, thanks to significantly improved hardware and software – all underpinned by the Smart Duo.

The National Committee on Textiles & Clothing (NCTC) launched a ‘Helpline Portal’ on March 12, 2021 i.e., http://citiindia.org/yarn-form/form/form.php, at Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI), being one of the apex industry bodies for the textile value chain and also coordinating in this regard with various Textile Associations across the country.

T Rajkumar, Coordinator, NCTC and Chairman of CITI, stated, the portal will help fabric manufacturers facing yarn shortage and irregular supply of yarn post the details 24 x 7 on CITI's dedicated web portal i.e., http://citiindia.org/yarn-form/form/form.php, designed for the purpose. He said that CITI Secretariat would also pass on the information to the respective textile associations /export promotion councils to advise their members to post the details of non-availability/short supplies of yarn so as to find solutions on a here and now basis.

T Rajkumar also stated that since the proposed system would enable direct buyer-seller contact, it would also curb speculations, hoardings, etc., thereby speedily resolving the above issue. He has also appealed to all the stakeholders in the textile value chain to take advantage of the online service system and find solutions in a constructive manner.

Global on-demand printing and warehousing provider Printful will add more than 50 Kornit Atlas systems during 2021 for direct-to-garment (DTG) production on demand, representing a considerable expansion of their current production capabilities. This coincides with the company’s addition of new production facilities in Los Angeles, Dallas, Charlotte, Mexico, Spain, and Canada, as well as expansion of existing facilities globally.

Named among Deloitte’s 2020 Technology Fast 500™ with three-year revenue growth of 441%, more than $722 million in goods sold by customers through the company’s online platform to date, and almost 30 million items delivered, Printful has provided a consistent model of success for on-demand fulfillment to B2B and B2C customers in the e-commerce age.

Davis Siksnans, Co-Founder and CEO believes, Kornit’s agile, versatile, efficient technologies will power the company’s success by answering its demands with ease.Kornit Digital develops, manufactures and markets industrial digital printing technologies for the garment, apparel and textile industries. Kornit delivers complete solutions, including digital printing systems, inks, consumables, software and after-sales support.

Poor marketing facilities and steep hike in yarn prices have forced 80 units in Sircilla Textile Park to shut shop. The park opened in 2002-2003 with an investment of Rs 7.73 crore. It had 237 plots in it and was expected to provide direct employment to 7,000 workers.

As per the Indian Express, the park is home to nearly 25,495 of the total 35,588 weavers in the State For the last two months, no trader has shown any interest in the 1.56 crore meters of cloth which remains piled up in the units. The value of the cloth is about Rs 2 crore.The cost of the production has shot up with polyester yarn rice increasing to Rs 270 from Rs 170 per kg a few months ago. Similarly polyester cotton yarn prices have increased from Rs 175 to Rs 270 per kg.

Annaldas Anil, President, Textile Park Units Association says, even paying salaries to the workers is becoming difficult for themFor the last two months several units have shut shop.”The other factor that had seen the Textile Park go out of business is the power bills which broke the back of the unit owners. Power in the Sircilla Textile Park costs Rs 7 per unit. Because of these factors, factors owners are unable to compete with producers from other states.

Addressing European Commissioners Thierry Breton and Nicolas Schmit during a high level roundtable conference for textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors, Alberto Paccanelli, President, Euratex insisted on the need to address skills challenges to make a successful transition of the industry. These challenges relate to the ageing workforce and difficulties to attract young talents, and the need for new skills – related to digitalization and sustainable production. He asked support to the European Commission to increase already existing up/reskilling activities, and in attracting younger generations to work in the sector.

In recent years, digitalization, sustainability and other trends emerged, requiring new skills to be developed and integrated in the companies. The sector also suffers from an ageing workforce – 35 per cent of current workers in the textile and clothing industry are over 50 years old –, decreasing number of younger employees and lack of attractiveness. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly accelerated these trends and created new challenges.

These issues were presented yesterday to European Commissioners Nicolas Schmit and Thierry Breton during the “Pact for Skills roundtable”. Several representatives from the industry and related stakeholders explained that these trends not only affect the workforce of EU companies, but more broadly the competitiveness of the industry.

A recent TCLF survey among 150 companies, launched by Euratex, CEC and Cotance, confirmed these challenges:

• Only 57 per cent of respondents implement currently up/reskilling activities to meet digital skills needs, 85% foresee them as important or very important in the next 5 years.

• 1 in 3 companies implements up/reskilling activities to meet green skills needs, and around 60% see them as very important in the next 5 years.

• Up/reskilling activities, focused on process and production skills characteristic for the textile and clothing industries, will remain important in the future. 9 out of 10 companies foresee needs for this type of skills in coming years.

• Up/reskilling initiatives in companies are constricted by time and financial constraints, as well as lack of knowledge about existing offer. That's why only 15% of companies admitted that they often or always use external financial support in up/reskilling. Collaboration structures between education stakeholders and policy makers - on national and regional levels - are considered ineffective.

The Pact for Skills initiative can be the ideal solution for these problems. EURATEX highlighted some actions that could be a part of the Pact for Skills:

• Support SMEs in their digital transformation with financial aid or programs. In the survey, companies stated that direct funding is the only way to meet this transformation.

• Improve the skillsets of existing workforce, by supporting companies in their efforts to upskill and reskill their workforce through training, apprenticeship and mentorship programmes.

• Minimize skills gaps and mismatches in the areas of sustainability, digitalization, process innovation and new business models.

• Attract well-qualified young workers and professionals.

• Supporting the modernization of the sectors’ VET and training infrastructure through improved education-industry collaboration.

“The Pact for Skills initiative can be the driver for change in a sector which is going through a substantial transformation” said Alberto Paccanelli. “But it should be implemented quickly, offer tangible results, and be part of the wider EU Textiles Strategy. EURATEX is ready to support the European Commission in running the process and connect all the different actors”.

As per CNBC reports, Amazon has surpassed Walmart to become US’ top apparel retailer.

In 2020, Amazan sold around $41 billion apparels and footwears, representing 11-12 per cent of all clothes sold in the US, says a Wells Fargo analyst.

Amazon’s apparel sales during the year increased by 20 per cent than that of Walmart, and the online retailer is expected to sell over $45 billion worth of apparels and footwears this year.

Amazon posted its highest e-commerce growth in three years during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Americans avoided shopping indoors. The company's web services generated huge growth last year as well due to companies transitioning to work-from-home models.

On the other hand, Walmart has introduced new clothing brands and partnered with fashion designers in recent years to boost sales. The retailer recently added a whole selection of sports apparel, and partnered with a fashion designer who dressed Michelle Obama.

A webinar, to be organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will focus on themes like integrated digital solutions for textile needs, smart manufacturing systems and green manufacturing. As per the Indian Textile Magazine, the webinar will be held on April 29 and is titled ‘Taiwan Excellence Textile Manufacturing Solution Webinar’.

EshaniGhosh, Trade Promotion Specialist, Taipei World Trade Centre, says, aiming to familiarize global buyers with Taiwanese textile machinery, the webinar will be represented by four Taiwanese companies: Logic Art Automation, Pailung Machinery Mill, Acme Machinery Industry and Hsing Cheng Machinery. It will bring together potential buyers in countries such as India. The proceedings will be broadcast live and will help participants understand the benefits of Taiwan’s textile machinery; especially those that use cloud platforms.

The companies that would be participating include leading players like Logic Art Automation, the only integrated enterprise that provides dye house total solution for the textile dyeing industry. It undertakes and integrates the process of a dyeing house such as dyestuff storage, lab for color management, and central control for stenter and dyeing machines. Another participant, Pailung Machinery Mill has been focusing on smart knitting projects for several years.It has launched a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) and Pailung Online Monitoring System (POMS) to respond to the varying market and complicated data management. The company’s smart knitting machine provides various services including optimizing the time of machine adjustment and accuracy, upgrading the management efficacy of stocks and machine maintenance, speeding up the response from manufacturing to the market, enhancing product repeatability from production, etc.

The third company, Acme Machinery Industry, offers new generation, eco-friendly intelligent conveyer drive dyeing machine.This is equipped with a conveyor to drive the fabrics instead of liquor floating and is able to save more than 65 per cent of water, steam, electricity and auxiliaries and reduce 65 per cent of wastewater and CO2 emission. The machine has obtained worldwide more than 20 invention patents with a total of over 200 PCS patent certificates.

Karl Mayer will showcase its textile innovations focusing on digitalization at ITMA ASIA + CITME from June, 12-16, 2021

All the three brands in the group including Karl Mayer, KM.ON and Stoll will focus on new digital trendsetting offers. Karl Mayer will exhibitmachines with the highest market relevance for both warp knitting and flat knitting. Visitors from both the warp knitting and flat knitting sectors, as well as from the warp preparation and technical textiles sectors, will be able to find out all about the opportunities for new business, stronger market positions and optimized production processes,said Arno Gärtner, CEO, Karl Mayer Group.

On show will be an HKS, two machines from the ADF family and a new flat knitting machine for the volume market. The digital features of these models enable them to offer unique possibilities in modern production processes. Karl Mayer will also exhibit the Isodirect beam warping machine with an excellent price-performance ratio.

Karl Mayer founded KM.ON to develop pioneering digital products. The company’s own software start-up made its first major market appearance at ITMA ASIA + CTME in 2018. This year, the company will showcase new and enhanced digital solutions that are highly effective in helping customers do business.