Although Vietnamese garment companies have showed great export performance, they are struggling on their home ground. After free trade agreements became effective, import tariffs were reduced and the retail market was opened for foreign enterprises, several foreign fashion brands including Zara, H&M, Topshop and Old Navy landed in the domestic market and directly competed with Vietnamese ones. Meanwhile, local fashion industry has not actually kept pace with global fashion trends. Fashion designers and firms still have to do things on their own as there is no school for training of professional fashion designers. In addition, consumers tend to prefer imported clothes to domestically-made ones despite the campaign to encourage Vietnamese people to give priority to made-in-Vietnam products.

As world famous fashion brands have increased their presence in Vietnam, domestic garment companies have adopted marketing strategies to promote their approach and increase market share. Firms have become positive about winning consumers by investing in design, improving product quality and restructuring cost prices. In contrast, Vietnam’s garment exports posted high growth for many consecutive years with export turnover five to 10 per cent higher than the previous year.

A new study by workforce management expert Quinyx shows, retail businesses in the UK can expect to suffer a shortage of shop and warehouse staff as a result of Britain leaving the European Union. The shortage could have a significant impact on economic contribution of the UK retail sector In fact, the economic output of retail workers would be £3.1bn lower per year by 2024 under a no-deal Brexit than in an orderly Brexit scenario, representing a 59 per cent decrease in output.

Access to manual workers or those in elementary service roles is crucial for ensuring the UK’s economic wellbeing – and employers, especially those in the retail sector, need to make plans to avoid staff shortages. Under any Brexit scenario, retail employers in the UK can expect to lose on average 16 per cent of their manual and elementary service workforce as a result of uncertainty and lack of immigration policies. Half of UK retailers are struggling to recruit and retain staff, with workers complaining of low pay, lack of flexibility, and limited progression opportunities.

Stefan Flöth is the new managing director of Monforts. Having spent his working life in the textile machinery industry, Flöth started his career with Schlafhorst. Between 1996 and 2009 Stefan Flöth was already a key part of the Monforts team in various roles related to R&D, mechanical design and management of the company’s joint ventures. He is now looking forward to acquainting himself with the current wider Monforts network of customers and suppliers.

He was the MD of Trützschler Nonwovens from 2009 onwards. Over the past 10 years, working in the nonwovens industry, he gained a lot of experience in the management of complex technical textile projects which he intends to draw on. His focus will be on the opportunities presented by Industry 4.0 and the potential of the technical textile market.

Monforts, based in Germany, was founded in 1884, is a leading supplier of textile finishing machines. The company is a market leader for stenters, continuous dyeing ranges, sanforising ranges and special executions for denim and for the coating of technical textiles. The new Monforts’ Thermex Econtrol continuous dyeing line considerably shortens processing times for heavier fabrics. It’s an extremely versatile range and allows easy movement between reactive and disperse dyeing, for example.

Pakistan looking to sign a free trade agreement with the US. The country is trying to get preferential market access to the United States. Pakistan has been formulating this strategy after the United States decided to strip India of its preferential market access that exempted Indian exports worth billions of dollars from American tariffs.

Pakistan was the 55th largest supplier of goods to the United States in 2017 with total exports worth $3.6 billion, while imports from the US were $2.8 billion in the same period. Pakistan’s main exports to the US include textile articles, knit apparel, woven apparel, leather products, cotton, and agricultural products.

As a first step Pakistan is increasing its production and value addition. Lucrative incentives will be offered to local and foreign investors to set up new industries to increase the country’s production line for exports and capture the international market with quality goods. Pakistan has been benefitting from tariff preferences (mostly zero duties on two-thirds of all product categories) under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus arrangement awarded by the European Union since January 2014. This has helped Islamabad increase its exports by 13 per cent so far. However, there is no guarantee that the US’ abolishment of preferential market access to India will automatically benefit Pakistan.

Stefan Flöth is managing director of Monforts.

Having spent his working life in the textile machinery industry, Flöth started his career with Schlafhorst. Between 1996 and 2009 Stefan Flöth was already a key part of the Monforts team in various roles related to R&D, mechanical design and management of the company’s joint ventures. He is now looking forward to acquainting himself with the current wider Monforts network of customers and suppliers.

He was the MD of Trützschler Nonwovens from 2009 onwards. Over the past ten years, working in the nonwovens industry, he gained a lot of experience in the management of complex technical textile projects which he intends to draw on. His focus will be on the opportunities presented by Industry 4.0 and the potential of the technical textile market.

Monforts, based in Germany, was founded in 1884 and today is a leading supplier of textile finishing machines. The company is a market leader for stenters, continuous dyeing ranges, sanforising ranges and special executions for denim and for the coating of technical textiles. The new Monforts’ Thermex Econtrol continuous dyeing line considerably shortens processing times for heavier fabrics. It’s an extremely versatile range and allows easy movement between reactive and disperse dyeing, for example.

Lenzing Nanjing Fibers has decided to leave the Chinese Collaboration for Sustainable Development of Viscose. The business will pursue its own sustainability agenda. This will involve striving towards the EU BAT (Best Available Technologies) standard, a pathway to closed-loop viscose manufacturing which is currently the most ambitious guidelines for cleaner viscose manufacturing. Many leading apparel brands are said to favor this standard. As a sustainability leader in the industry, Lenzing will now pursue its own path in collaborating with the entire value chain to green up the industry and thus expand the company’s position. This cooperation will involve forest owners, spinners, weavers and knitters, fabric makers as well as brands and retailers selling products made from wood-based fibers.

The Chinese viscose initiative originally encompassed 10 viscose producers in China joining forces to make the industry more sustainable. However, despite launching with much fanfare last year, Chinese viscose factories which have signed up to a high-profile industry sustainability initiative are continuing to violate regulations. There are significant gaps in the Collaboration for Sustainable Development of Viscose. The initiative is said to be short on ambition and will not meet NGO requirements on responsible viscose, which have been endorsed by leading fashion brands.

India has reduced hank yarn obligation from 40 to 30 per cent. The decision is expected to help spinning mills. As a result of the reduction in the obligatory quantity, the premium on hank yarn transfer will also get reduced thus helping spinning mills to reduce their cost.

In 2003, the hank yarn obligation was reduced from 50 per cent to 40 per cent. The Hank Yarn Obligation Scheme was introduced in 1963 and it directed mills to pack 50 per cent of the domestic weaving yarn delivery in hank form. The obligation was fixed based on the spinning capacity then existing, the handloom capacity and the power loom capacity and the demand for cotton yarn from both the handloom and power loom sectors.

Due to the labour shortage, increase in yarn production capacity, and technology upgradation the need for hank yarn has come down drastically. Also, due to the closure of hank dyeing units following the stringent norms of pollution control boards, the hank yarn requirement has come down sizably. Spinning mills which have a shortage of the obligatory quantity are forced to use the transfer facility from mills that produce in excess quantity and pay an exorbitant premium to fulfil the obligation.

The Aditya Birla Group flagship Grasim Industries has signed an agreement to buy out the 100 per cent stake of Soktas India from its current promoters for Rs 165 crore. Soktas is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Turkish firm Soktas Tekstil Sanayi ve Ticaret, which produces and markets premium fabrics and has its main facilities at Soke in the Mediterranean country.

The company will fund the entire transaction primarily from internal accruals. The deal will be subject to net debt and working capital adjustments, as of the closing date and also after getting all regulatory approval, according to a statement released by the company.

The acquisition is in line with Grasim’s linen business strategy to strengthen its presence in the premium fabric market. Increasing disposable income, fashion and quality orientation of Indian consumers has resulted in an increase in the demand for premium fabric over the years.

Gujarat Heavy Chemicals (GHCL) has launched a range of home textiles products based on health and wellness. GHCL has launched a range of innovative products made with recycled polyester. The bedding products have been designed to support the circular economy. They centre around the concept of “reduce, reuse and recycle. The Rekoop collection is the first bedding line to use 100 per cent source-verified recycled PET, as well as cotton-recycled PET blended products.

The PET bottles are processed at Reliance Industries’ plant at Barabanki through an extruder and transformed into tagged r-PET fiber. The fiber is then spun along with cotton to make cotton/polyester blended yarn at GHCL’s spinning facility in Madurai. The fabric is then woven, processed, cut and sewn into finished bedding products at its integrated home furnishings manufacturing plant in Vapi.

A total of 36 bottles are used to make a single sheet set. By way of recycling PET bottles, the company has helped in the reduction of 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space, saved on consumption of crude oil by at least nine barrels and avoided carbon emission of up to 6.5 tonne. The company has invested Rs. 13.50 billion in the textile business and plans to invest another Rs. 3.50 billion in the next two years.

Chinese sewing machine brands have captured the Indian market. Providing low cost, high quality and strong technical support, Chinese sewing machine brands have been able to shift the Indian market’s focus from Japanese or European brands towards them.

Jack has opened service centers in all major garment manufacturing hubs of India. More than a 100 Indian technicians have been trained by the sewing juggernaut. Not just garment units and main dealers, the brand provides training to sub dealers and small level distributors too. Jack has divided its business strategy into three segments: basic business with mid-low level customers; developing business with mid-high level customers; and future business with mid-high level customers. In the first category, it aims to sell basic lockstitch, overlock and interlock machines while in the second category Jack is currently focusing on mid-high level customers and wants to provide them intelligent and automatic solutions according to their needs.

Lincoln Sewing Machine has a range of technologies like the LK-1790A machine which is part of an intelligent computer direct drive, flat head buttonhole machine series. This machine performs buttonhole operation using a basting stitch mechanism and is effective on elastic materials such as knits, saving the cost of five laborers.