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Footwear company Skechers’ quarterly net sales increased 16.9 per cent. This was due in part to a 6.4 per cent increase in the domestic wholesale business, an 18.6 per cent increase in the international wholesale business, and a 28 per cent increase in the global retail business.
The domestic wholesale business shipped 11.4 per cent more pairs, while the average price per pair fell 4.5 per cent. Growth came across Skechers’ three distribution channels—with double-digit increases in the company-owned global Skechers retail business as well as a mid-single-digit increase in its domestic wholesale business.
The launch of the ‘You’ by Skechers lifestyle and wellness line also contributed to the record sales performance, with strong sales in the sandal business, and the company reported double-digit growth in China, India, Australia, Germany and Chile.
In addition to record performances, gross profit in the second quarter increased to 47.6 per cent of net sales, and selling expenses increased to 9.7 per cent of sales, compared to 8.7 per cent of sales, in the prior year, due to increased advertising. Net earnings in the second quarter fell 19.7 per cent and net earnings for the six-month period were $153.5 million.
Puma’s currency-adjusted revenue for 2017 will rise by 12 per cent to 14 per cent. The German sporting goods maker unexpectedly reported a jump in quarterly sales and profits. Puma, which had already raised forecasts in April, is into the fourth year of a turnaround, balancing sportswear and street styles with the help of endorsements from celebrities including sprinter Usain Bolt and singer Rihanna.
Shares surged as much as 7.1 per cent, extending their gain this year to 44 per cent. Second-quarter sales rose 17 per cent, representing growth of 16 per cent at constant exchange rates. Operating profit jumped to euro 43.4 million from euro 11.9 million a year earlier.
German sports brand Puma, founded in 1948, designs, develops and markets footwear, apparel and accessories. Puma offers performance and lifestyle products in team sports, running and training, golf and motorsport. It also has a dedicated line of golf equipment, apparel, footwear and accessories.
Today, Puma is one of the world’s leading sneaker companies, with models ranging from innovative shoes such as the lightweight Faas running shoe to the heritage of the classic Clyde & Suede models. Its sport performance and lifestyle labels include categories such as football, running, motorsports, golf and sailing.
Despite the special package for the textile and garment sector unveiled by India in June last year, fresh employee registrations from the sector under the employees provident fund (EPF) scheme have been just 40,800 so far.
The Pradhan Mantri Paridhan Rozgar Protsahan Yojana (PMPRPY) was expected to create a crore of new jobs, increase India’s exports of textiles and garments by 30 billion dollars and result in Rs 74,000 crores of investments in the employment-intensive sector over three years.
The PMPRPY scheme has had a slow start, but it is now picking up. The rise in numbers could be attributed to more awareness of the scheme, attractive benefits for employers and the EPF’s amnesty scheme that remained valid for six months till June last.
Under the amnesty scheme, the government bears employers’ contribution of 8.33 per cent of basic pay to the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS) for new employees even if new posts are not created by the firm. The benefit was earlier available only for new posts created.
The PMPRPY scheme for the apparel sector was subsequently extended to the made-ups sector too. A budget of Rs 6,006 crores was approved for the scheme.
A revamped awareness program and a logo for the PMPRPY scheme will be unveiled soon.
Afghanistan wants to revive its textile industry and India is taking steps to help it. Afghanistan produces over 59,000 tons of cotton annually but there are no cotton processing factories in the country. In the past, there were at least seven textile manufacturing factories which the country lost during the years of wars. The sector employed over 30,000 employees.
Traditional textiles of Afghanistan reflect the diverse nature of the country. The designs, materials, and techniques of the traditional textiles of Afghanistan display varying ethnic and regional influences, creating a mixture of Middle Eastern and Central Asian styles that are further combined with those of the Indian subcontinent. Clothing and household furnishings feature vibrant silk and cotton fabrics, wool woven into intricate patterns, and lavish embroidery. Even utilitarian items like grain bags and animal trappings are beautifully decorated.
India will cooperate with Afghanistan to expand business in the field of textiles and clothing. Help from India will be in the field of textiles, clothing, cotton, manmade fiber and handlooms. India has agreed to provide all necessary assistance to develop the Afghan textile industry and assist in skill development, research and development, technical collaboration in product development and manufacturing, testing and certification and joint trade missions for mutual collaboration.
A biannual conference on functional textiles and clothing will be held in New Delhi, from February 9 to 11, 2018. It’s being organsied by IIT Delhi, World University Design Sonepat and PSG College of Technology Coimbatore. Manufacturers will display functional products, smart textiles, wearables and other such products at an exhibition.
An international scientific committee comprising scientists from over 18 countries will oversee the content of the conference. The conference serves as an interdisciplinary platform for leading academic scientists, researchers, entrepreneurs and market stakeholders to share recent scientific developments, cutting edge technologies, innovations, trends, concerns, challenges and opportunities in the field of functional and smart textiles and clothing.
The topics to be discussed include protective textiles and clothing, medical textiles and clothing, athletic, extreme sports and military applications, smart, functional and interactive textiles, mass customization, garment design and manufacturing, design methodologies, education and training, innovation and entrepreneurship, supply chain management, sustainable production and recycling.
In addition to technical papers, the conference has announced innovation contests for students in textile and fashion products. There will also be a poster contest for students. Functional textiles may have sweat management systems or therapeutic, healing, antibacterial or antimicrobial properties.
Esquel is one of the largest suppliers of premium shirts and polos around the world. The brand produces and sells cotton shirts, men’s and women’s dress shirts, sport shirts, and woven and knitted tops as well as accessories such as buttons, labels, and hand tags.
The group has a profound focus on sustainability in its way of conducting business. It integrates sustainability into every step of the supply chain, from cotton farms to fabric mills and garment factories.
Founded in 1978, the Esquel Group, based in Hong Kong, is a global textile and apparel manufacturer with a vertically-integrated supply chain that straddles from cotton to retailing. It employs a 58,000 multinational workforce, with manufacturing facilities in China, Malaysia, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, and merchandising offices servicing markets worldwide. It manufactures over 100 million pieces of garments annually for leading brands including Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Nike.
About two-thirds of its final products are made in China. The firm is running a complete value chain in China, from cotton growing to spinning, weaving, dyeing, sewing, and retailing. And instead of chasing after cheap labor, Esquel has optimized value by focusing on so-called deskilled automation, where less talent and training is needed to operate each machine – as well as fewer staff.
Headquartered in Brussels, the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) is concerned about revenue losses in billions of dollars and thousands of job losses in the wake of China's plans to ban imports of specific waste materials. The Chinese government notified its plans to end import of certain waste plastics, unsorted waste paper, textile wastes and metallic slags and residues to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Whilst BIR and its members support and promote high quality standards for scrap exports, this ban, if implemented, will have a serious impact on global recycling industry, says BIR's director general Arnaud Brunet. He also noted international trade in scrap materials had supported China's economic growth over the last quarter century and had provided the secondary raw materials needed by Chinese companies for production.
According to BIR, the value of secondary raw materials shipments to China runs into the tens of billions of US dollars. Last year, China imported 7.3 million tonnes of waste plastics worth billions of dollars primarily from Europe, the US and Japan. These were also the most important sources of waste paper imports to China.
Last year, China's total waste paper imports stood at 27 million tonnes, of which 20 to 30 per cent consisted of mixed paper, according to BIR. A ban may result in a large amount of mixed paper scrap ending up outside of the circular economy stream, says the recycling umbrella organisation. BIR it will now engage with stakeholders and Chinese government to explain the "devastating impact" that the proposed ban would have on both the global recycling industry as well as for the Chinese and global economies.
BIR is represents around 800 members. Besides individual companies, they include 36 national recycling organisations.
Some 40 Bangladeshi garment factories will take part in Premiere Vision Paris, September 19 to 21, 2017. Bangladesh wants to show what it can manufacture. Usually, Bangladeshi apparel makers do not get such a big platform to network with buyers and brands. Bangladeshi companies have passed the selection criteria set by Premiere Vision Paris with over 85 per cent compliance levels whereas Chinese factories have been rejected for compliance levels of less than 35 per cent.
Bangladeshi companies have an efficiency rate of 62 per cent to 75 per cent compared with less than 18 per cent and 35 per cent of their counterparts in Ethiopia and Myanmar.
Premiere Vision Paris is the definitive platform for the last 35 years for professionals involved in the apparel business. The show highlights the best in fabric and garment manufacturing and production destinations. It is a must-see for all stakeholders in the industry. This is a premium trade show geared at the high fashion market segment.
With 60,000 visitors from 124 countries in each edition, it is a place where manufacturers can engage with new buyers from high-end segments and establish business contacts. Over 5,000 global brands will join the three-day show. This is the biggest sourcing connection fair.
Adnan Ahmad has taken over as the president of Clariant in India. Ahmad succeeds Deepak Parikh, who was instrumental in implementing and leading Clariant’s growth strategy in India for the last four years. Parikh will now serve as the region president for Clariant in North America as well as chief executive officer of both Clariant Corporation and Clariant Canada.
Ahmad, a chemical engineer, has over 32 years of industry experience across sectors and continents. He began his career with ICI where he worked in a variety of manufacturing, supply chain and business roles across India. At BP he held various global and leadership roles with demonstrated success in transformational leadership and regional supply chain management. He was also with Castrol.
Switzerland-based Clariant, is a world leader in specialty chemicals. It is a leading manufacturer and merchant exporter of pigments, fine chemicals and leather chemicals. The business structure of the company comprises the following divisions: life science and electronic chemicals, pigments and additives, textile, leather and paper chemicals, cellulose ethers and polymerisates, functional chemicals.
Clariant has introduced several new products both in leather chemicals and textile chemicals. The personal care business develops and produces specialty ingredients and co-surfactants for skin and hair care, wet wipes and pharmaceutical applications.
"RFID tagging is a fast-growing trend among garment retailers as the cost of tags comes down and technology improves. Factor that’s driving growth is huge growth in shopping via mobiles, tablets, desktops, and messaging services and social media, leading to the growth of omni channel retailing, having a single view of products and customers across all shopping channels and warehouses. That forces retailers to have clear knowledge about where every individual piece of stock is situated in the supply chain."
RFID tagging is a fast-growing trend among garment retailers as the cost of tags comes down and technology improves. Factor that’s driving growth is huge growth in shopping via mobiles, tablets, desktops, and messaging services and social media, leading to the growth of omni channel retailing, having a single view of products and customers across all shopping channels and warehouses. That forces retailers to have clear knowledge about where every individual piece of stock is situated in the supply chain. When a shopper orders an item, the chain can locate it and get it to a nearby store for them to pick up.
The latest in line is River Island who is attaching radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags to every item of clothing it stocks. The tags enable a store’s staff to identify all items of clothing on the shop’s shelves and racks, and in stockrooms and fitting rooms, using a remote RFID reader. Just switch on the reader and it sends out radio waves which identify a unique code embedded in every tag. In just a few minutes, store managers can conduct a stock check and identify every item of stock in-store, a process that done manually takes many hours. The stores used to carry out a stock take just once or twice a year. Now they do it every week.
Other companies following
Fashion giants such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis have tested the tags and are introducing them across their stores. US department giant Macy’s is launching the technology across its business. Tesco, Asda and many others are also trying their hands at it. Department store chain John Lewis has been experimenting with RFID for about ten years, and is now trialling the technology and introducing it to some 30 of its stores. Most of its fashion range will be RFID-enabled by the end of this year.
Room for growth
More than 100 billion items of apparel are sold a year globally, while RFID tagging is in single percentage figures, there room for expansion. The key move which unleashed RFID was the creation of a single global standard, says Jacky Broomhead, UK market development manager for apparel at GS1, which creates supply chain standards for retailers. Before 2005, there was no single standard and retailers used a variety of tags. But the Electronic Product Code (EPC) was launched in 2005 and refined in 2008 as EPC Generation 2. We got the industry to unite globally under a radio frequency for the tags to operate. The benefit is the tags will work anywhere in the world, said Jacky.
Having one standard reduces price of tags, which has come down 75 per cent in the past five years. The cost varies by volume but it was on average about 12p a tag and now retailers are getting them for 5p or 6p, highlighted Jacky. The cost of implementing the hardware – buying the readers – is also relatively low. RFID tags could have wide uses in the future, beyond just checking stock. They could replace bar codes for payment and act as security tags.
Expert say the use of tags will spread beyond fashion into other areas of retail. RFID is one piece in the broader adoption of internet, including sensors, beacons, cameras and smart shelves. The combination of these technologies will drive adoption into more stock keeping unit-intensive retail sectors like grocery.
