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For the half year Primark’s operating profit rose 36 per cent. Sales were up in double-digits. Primark saw a substantial increase in selling space, which together with its strong consumer offering, contributed to a further increase in its share of the total clothing market.
Primark’s retail revenue rose 21 per cent at actual exchange rates and a 11 per cent currency-neutral rise. Operating profit was up three per cent. Primark performed well in the UK and sales was seven per cent ahead of last year with a strong increase in its share of total clothing market. This was driven by a two per cent growth in comparable sales and an increase in selling space.
In continental Europe, sales and market shares increased strongly. In the Netherlands, where sales densities are high and some stores are over-trading, the company added 32 per cent more retail selling space over the last year, including a flagship store in Amsterdam. Consequently, total sales in the Netherlands increased by 18 per cent but comp sales declined.
Overall, European sales for the group were level with last year but were one per cent ahead excluding the Netherlands. The company also continued to develop and evolve its US store offering.
The Netherlands wants to forge ties with Albania. The country is exploring opportunities to cooperate with Albanian companies, who are active across the garment value chain. Albania is seen as a great opportunity for Dutch brands and buyers who want to source sustainable and responsible garments and shoes.
Albania’s garment and footwear sector produces the country’s top exports and mainly relies on cheap labor costs. The sector’s annual turnover accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s total exports. The quality of work is good. The majority of garment and footwear factories produce for Italian quality brands. Albania’s strategic geographical location allows an easy and rapid reach to the Netherlands. Add the ability to source small quantities and this is a sourcing country that offers good options for small and large Dutch fashion brands.
Also Albanian companies offer competitive production costs, short lead times and eagerness to open up to the world and move up the value chain ladder towards full cycle production. On the other side, Dutch companies offer a dynamic and innovative market, an experienced entrepreneurship attitude and commonly reliable partnership when it comes to orders’ payments.
The Netherlands has emerged as the second largest foreign direct investor in Albania in the past couple of years and is on track to further increase its presence in the Balkan country thanks to increased investment in the oil industry.
Farmers from the coastal villages in Olpaad taluka in Surat have sought immediate involvement of the industries department to stop the process of allotting land at Pinjrat for the development of mega Textile Park by the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI).
The Khedut Samaj Gujarat (KSG) has written to Gujarat industries commissioner Mamta Verma, as farmers of the remote Pedaganjam village in Prakasam district protested against the proposed mega textile park to create world class infrastructure to facilitate setting up of apparel manufacturing units.
Farmer say they are not against the development of industries in the region but are concerned that setting up of the park will harm environment and affect hundreds of fishermen. For the mega textile park, SGCCI has formed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) Textile Processing Park Association (TPPA). The park will be set up on 70 lakh sq. m. of land owned by the state government with initial investment of Rs 1,500 crores. The park would accommodate around 100 textile processing units, 40 water jet weaving units, around 225 garmenting units and other textile ancillary units. As per the proposed, around 50 per cent of the fabric manufactured in the processing units will be converted into home textiles and garments.
The company has carried out the environmental impact survey of the land. Since 277 hectare land for the park development will be received thus, the it does not fall under the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) Act says SGCCI, B S Agarwal. Agarwal also added that the development of mega park will change the face of coastal villages and many unemployed youths will get employment in the textile mills.
Ethiopian and is offering free land as a government delegation has extended an invite to Tirupur-based garment producers to set up an apparel manufacturing facilities in Ethiopia. The investors of Ethiopian would get the benefit of preferential tariff benefits of zero import duty, when exporting clothing to markets of the US and EU.
Tadesse Haile, state minister for exports and investment feels Ethiopia is an ideal investment destination for Tirupur-based apparel exporters as exports from Ethiopia to the US and EU and would not attract duty as against shipping from India. Already one unit from Tirupur had set up facilities in Ethiopia and another is in the process of starting production.
The minister further added because there are abundant skilled labor in the country, investors definitely benefit from the world’s lowest energy rates. In order to speed up exports, the country is located in the horn of Africa has recently started a high speed train between Addis Abba, and Djibouti port, which is well connected to several major importing countries.
Joint director, Punjab agriculture, JS Bains says this year cotton is likely to make a revival in several Southwestern districts where paddy was grown in the last few seasons. Cotton, which is often termed by farmers as 'white gold' for bringing higher remuneration, is set to regain lost ground in Punjab where the area under the crop is expected to rise by more than 50 per cent after it fell to ever lowest 2.56 lakh hectares in the last year. The revival of the fibre is buttressed by the highest productivity of 756 lint kg per hectare in kharif season 2016-17 compared to lowest ever 197 lint kg per hectare in 2015-16.
Due to extensive damage caused by whitefly this kharif season cotton acreage is expected to jump over four lakh hectares in Punjab after two-years of consecutive decline in the area. In recent years farmers had opted for paddy in this region that traditionally grew cotton after yield declined and liberal sanction of new tube wells facilitated paddy sowing also the state has recorded highest ever cotton productivity in 2016-17 says, Bains.
By now, the expected revitalization of cotton has caused a spurt in demand for cotton hybrid seeds in North. There is also a rise in the demand for cotton hybrids in Punjab and Haryana. Further Bains says, this year the agriculture department has arranged for teams of surveillance, scouts to control the weeds.
Cordura’s Re/Mastered collection is inspired by iconic 20th century utility silhouettes. The collection is a tribute to Cordura denim and is made using specially engineered Cordura fabrics from leading mills Arvind, Artistic Milliners, Cone Denim, and Kipas.
Arvind’s classic Cordura Denim is well washed and worn and has been hammered hard in the line of duty. Artistic Milliners’ heavy duty, indigo blue, specially engineered 15 osy Cordura denim has been uniquely re-mastered for a heritage work wear outfit.
Taking inspiration from across Europe and different decades of the 20th century, a classic 1960s-style Dutch utilitarian field jacket combined with retro French motorcycle pants has been re-imagined through Cone Denim’s vintage-inspired Cordura red-edge selvedge denim.
Kipas Cordura canvas fabric has been custom dyed in British khaki to create a heritage work outfit. The silhouettes created for the collection borrow from functional shapes and authentic details of iconic garments from the past, taking inspiration from work wear, motorcycling, and even military applications. From ’60s firefighter jackets to brewery aprons, to mechanic’s coveralls, the new collection re-imagines these original pieces.
All garments in the Re/Mastered collection were specially dyed and finished to give the fabrics an authentic worn heritage look and feel that is central to the collection’s style. Cordura is presenting the Re/Mastered collection at the ongoing Kingpins Show in Amsterdam from April 19 to 21.
The Chinese sportswear market is growing at 11 per cent. Sportswear is finding success where other types of apparel are beginning to struggle. While the athletic apparel market in China rose by 11 per cent in 2016, overall apparel grew at less than half that rate, with an increase of five per cent.
Gym membership in the country doubled since 2008, and the number of marathons rose from 51 in 2014 to over 100 just two years later. The country is also taking action to tackle the rising number of health problems such as obesity and diabetes, and has launched a five-year fitness plan that will make investments in sports and fitness facilities.
China’s demographics are positioning it as an excellent market for athletic goods. It has a population of 415 million millennials, as well as the world’s largest middle class. People with higher incomes tend to participate in more leisure activities, including sports, so this growing demographic of young workers with disposable income is providing a large market for active wear.
Active wear is increasingly becoming accepted as everyday clothing, including in the office and sometimes even at weddings.
China’s polyester industry is reviving. Many Chinese polyester manufacturers are recovering from a recent period of overcapacity. Global demand for polyester is expected to grow faster than the capacity of Chinese manufacturers. Most demand for polyester fiber comes from China, India and Southeast Asia-based apparel, garments and home furnishings manufacturers. China alone accounts for 65 per cent of global consumption.
The manufacturing capacity of the whole industry in China is rising at three per cent a year. Global demand is growing at five to six per cent. Chinese polyester manufacturers are recovering in a positive direction from the overcapacity damage in 2015.
Xinfengming is China’s second largest polyester filament manufacturer and sells products across Southeast China and 12 countries globally. The company had a revenue of 17.5 billion yuan in 2016. Two decades ago, the US and Europe dominated the global polyester market. Today, the Asia-Pacific region has become an important location for polyester manufacturing with availability of cheap labor.
This shift was possible because of the Multi Fiber Agreement which helped to build mutual relationships between developed countries like the US and the European Union and developing nations like China.
Sustainable clothing is striving to clean up the apparel industry’s reputation as the second most polluting industry on the planet. Mango has a new, mostly organic cotton collection in stores this season. Zara’s collection spotlights, among other green fabrics, a closed-loop material called Refibra made of recycled Tencel and cotton scraps.
H&M has a pleated gown in a fabric called Bionic, a polyester made from recycled plastic shoreline waste. The Swedish clothing giant has a target of using exclusively sustainable fabrics by 2030.
The definition of sustainable can vary widely, depending on the brand, but it generally involves some combination of greener supply chains, sourcing eco and recycled fabrics, manufacturing locally or ethically offshore and minimizing waste, polluting chemicals and energy consumption.
So every brand has to find its own eco recipe, depending on its financial and material resources and values. Ethical fashion brands are going after a growing demographic of aspirationals, a mix of hopeful millennials and Gen-Xers, that like to shop but prefer supporting brands with integrity.
Brands are entrenching sustainability throughout the supply chain. They're building proper sustainability teams instead of just tacking on a sustainable marketing director and green washing.
Brands are starting to calculate what climate change will do to their bottom line while coming to terms with their businesses' cost to the planet.
The African Development Bank has launched an initiative to assist fashion entrepreneurs in South Africa and Nigeria and Kenya. It is targeting to improve skills, financing, the supply chain, access to markets and handle many other challenges. The bank’s ‘Jobs for Youth in Africa’ strategy aims at creating 25 million jobs for youth on the continent as well as equipping an additional 50 million in the next decade.
African entrepreneurs have to import most of their materials, seek markets and build their own capacity by investing on their own. There has been a rapid growth in fashion designers across the country but without supporting infrastructure such as manufacturing, cotton production and marketing. Other challenges are problems with skills, especially marketing skills, financing that is difficult to obtain, expensive real estate, online payment issues in a region where banks are scarce, insufficient production capacity and so on.
The ADB aims at addressing these issues and empowering and funding the industry to produce local fabric and cut down fabric imports. Production of fabrics will also help designers from Africa get the fabric of their choice. African Development Bank commands huge funds and is known for its multi-billion infrastructure projects such as roads.
