Michael Kors owner Capri Holdings estimated a stunning 70 per cent drop in first-quarter revenue as the COVID-19 pandemic hammered demand for its luxury handbags and dresses. The company also forecast a return to profits in the second half of fiscal 2021, which started in April, helping send its shares up over 3 per cent.

Capri’s sales at its reopened stores hit 50 per cent to 75 per cent of prior year levels with stronger trends in China, but shipments to department stores had plunged and would result in “significant” losses in the first quarter.

According to IBES data from Refinitiv, analysts had forecast a 46.7 per cent fall in the company’s revenue for the first quarter ended June. However, according to its fourth-quarter results, Capri’s total revenue fell 11.3 per cent to $1.19 billion in the three months ended March 28, slightly above the average analyst estimate of $1.12 billion. The company reported a fourth-quarter net loss attributable to Capri of $551 million, compared to a profit of $19 million a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company earned 11 cents per share, missing estimates of 15 cents per share.

In a coauthored paper to guide the apparel industry against growing carbon emissions, Chendan Yan of the World Resources Institute says many global companies have started taking action against increasing carbon pollution. Many are setting targets and trying very hard to achieve them.

According to Yan, the biggest challenge that the industry faces is that brands often outsource manufacturing to companies in other countries. Those companies rely on others for raw materials, which makes it hard to measure and reduce carbon pollution.

Hence, a lot of these brands are educating and engaging their suppliers. For example, Levi-Strauss is helping its suppliers obtain low-interest loans for renewable energy or efficiency projects. And Nike is helping manufacturers switch from fossil fuels to solar and biomass. Yan believes as more suppliers get involved, it will help reduce carbon pollution throughout the industry.

The Textile Association of India (TAI) has urged the Gujarat government to relax quarantine norms for laborers who wish to return to the state. More than 18 textile processing mills and powerloom factories in Surat that reopened after lockdown restrictions were shut down last week due to labor shortage.

Majority of the laborers working in the city’s textile industry are from Orissa, UP and Bihar. Over 10 lakh migrant textile laborers returned to their native places during the lockdown imposed in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the first half of the year 2020 was completely remained disappointing for the city’s textile industry which currently has around 330 textile processing mills. All these mills remained closed during lockdown. Though around 50 mills re-opened in Unlock-1, many of these are facing a labor shortage. Many of these mills are operating on 25 per cent capacity.

To help suppliers survive the Coronavirus crisis, Danish fashion brand Bestseller intends to not only pay for all its current orders immediately but also implement early payments till October. The brand recognizes the predicament faced by supply factories, and their employees, and wants to ease the financial pressures faced by them. It will pay for its July, August and September orders within 10 days of delivery. It will revert back its standard payment terms, within 90 days of delivery, from October 01.

The company is also accelerating the consolidation of supply chain by reducing the number of suppliers it buys from. Over the past four months, the company has faced significant challenges and disruptions due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, and had to make difficult decisions in order to protect colleagues partners, and supply chain.

The company also meets its suppliers in all production countries face-to-face multiple times per year, to follow up on actual progress and developments, and address issues whenever needed.

Well-known in Italy as the one and only place to source garments, knit wear, fabrics and accessories from European and non EU counties, Ready to Show Online is the first event in Italy to give international apparel, accessory, textile and leather manufacturers direct access to major European buyers, including importers, private labels, large retailers and all other imported apparel and textiles.

The show will feature companies from all countries, product categories and distribution channels. It will give producers representing all product subsectors, from large bulk orders to small orders with an opportunity to meet qualified buyers and potential partners registered via our VIP check-in.

Visibility to all businesses

Completely user-friendly, the site will enable even the smallest in the fashion business to be visible with a dignified presentation not always available during traditional trade shows. Buyers visiting the show will be able to work with ease and devote their time to searches and exhibitors. Selected participants from all producing countries for each sub-sectors , either for bulk orders or small MOQ will be able to meet qualified buyers pre-registered through our VIP check-ins. The portal has been structured to offer the best service to demanding buyers. The data-base currently includes 30,000 names of prospective visitors. It has an intensive presence on LINKEDIN and all other social networks.

Seminars & Conferences

The portal will organize extensive seminars and conferences programs during the whole year with international speakers and prestigious sponsors. It has close association with all relevant national fashion boards and associations and sends personalized invitations to participate with VIP treatments. The portal will also organize special events and intensive trade PR campaigns.

Ready to Show Online is being organized Tortona Design & Fashion which is owned by Georges PAPA ,a consulting company specialized in textile and garments businesses. Georges PAPA has been operating in fashion business since 1975 both for internaetional and national official trade and industry bodies. The company has held 40 editions of the Ready to Show event in Milan since 2001 which has allowed it to develop an extensive data-base of all Italian fashion industries and trades from yarns to haute couture

Messe Frankfurt has decided to take the summer edition of its show Texworld to a virtual platform, with the aim to support the sourcing community through these unprecedented times. .

The transition to a virtual event reinforces the fierce commitment to supporting the industry through both good and challenging times. With the returning support of long-standing exhibitors, international and domestic, the July event will open with similar features found on the trade show floor. An online showroom will highlight material innovations, while allowing visitors to chat with representatives about specific requirements, factory options and more.

Attendees and exhibitors will have the opportunity to get connected through smart and intuitive networking tool that calculates and recommends the most relevant people and sessions to users. In addition to the digital exhibit presentation, a comprehensive educational program will run alongside. Topics will range from sustainability initiatives, environmental and ethical impacts to business tips and sourcing options amidst a pandemic.

The next Texworld USA will be held in January 2021, Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics from 23 -25 September and Texworld/Apparel Sourcing Paris in February 2021.

Next, Amazon UK, IKEA and Marks & Spencer (M&S) are among 20 major UK retailers who this week pledged to jointly develop a net-zero roadmap for the retail sector, setting a more ambitious target than the national 2050 requirement.

The coalition of retailers pledged to publish the roadmap in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow, which has been postponed to November 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a declaration coordinated by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The group will work with each other, BRC environmental experts and third parties to define the roadmap’s time-bound measures towards complete net decarbonisation ahead of the 2050 deadline.

Three key areas, regarded as the UK retail sector’s largest sources of emissions, will be analysed. These are comprised of upstream supply chains, customers and direct operations including shops, distribution centres, warehouses, transport and logistics.

The BRC claims that there is currently no other net-zero roadmap for the UK’s retail sector that encompasses all of these emissions sources. Also signing the declaration are Aldi, the Booksellers Association, Boots, Co-op, Costa Coffee, Dixons Carphone, Greggs, Kingfisher, Lidl, Missguided, Musgrave, Ocado, TJX, WH Smith and Morrison’s. Several of these have already unveiled net-zero targets deadlined at 2050 or sooner.

SPGPrints, a Netherlands-based leading global company in the textile, label and industrial printing markets, has appointed Quantia Solutions SL, as the company’s new agent in Spain to represent its rotary and digital textile printing division. Quantia is an experienced agency in the field of textile printing applications.

Quantia Solutions operates in the Iberian Peninsula, representing high-tech brands, leaders in digital solutions for the textile industry, with a complete range of products. With this partnership they also included the SPGPrints products, like rotary screens and digital inks.

In the Textile Experience Centre, located at their headquarters in Madrid, Quantia is offering customers the possibility of knowing and interacting with all products in their portfolio. Quantia has a dedicated team of sales & service professionals to support the local SPGPrints customers. Over the last weeks SPGPrints trained the Quantia team to be ready to serve the Iberian market with the SPGPrints products.

Apparel manufacturer and fashion retailer Jerasia Capital Bhd has ventured PPE manufacturing for both local and export markets.

Its units Canteran Apparel Sdn Bhd (CASB) and Canteran Apparel (Cambodia) Co (CAC) have expanded their product portfolio and are now developing, producing and supplying PPE products that include non-woven isolation gowns, head covers, shoe covers, cloth face coverings and other related PPE garments. Jerasia, which operates Mango retail outlets in Malaysia, said the subsidiaries had converted and repurposed its existing production lines, leveraging their expertise in the manufacturing of fashion apparels, to produce PPE garments.

Repurposing of the existing production lines had been part of the group’s plans to diversify its core manufacturing activity of producing fashion apparel to enter into the healthcare segment to fully utilise its resources and generate additional revenues.

In collaboration with the designers Eva x Carola, Santoni has officially opened its new Materials Experience Centre (MEC) in Shanghai.

The new space is a contemporary research and inspiration centre for leading professionals in the textiles industry to meet clients, research ideas and work on bespoke projects. It will be a pivotal space for inspiration, ideation, implementation and knowledge sharing.

The MEC is designed to meet the needs of a modern textile producer that consistently champions sustainability and futuristic design thinking when it comes to garments, the company said in a statement today.

The Material Experience Center was developed to adapt to different uses and projects and simplicity and adaptability were central to the finished design. The idea is that people can effortlessly slot in different products, samples and demonstrations within the space, using the areas provided.