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Turkish investment in Serbia is expected to grow in the short term as the country offers the best conditions for foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Western Balkans. The Balkan country is offering financial incentives, such as government subsidies, as well as a prime strategic position as a link between southern and central Europe and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, says Aleksandar Medjedovic the chairman of Turkey.
Currently, 12 or 13 Turkish companies operate factories in Serbia and their number is expected to double by the end of the year, as Turkish knitted fabric and knitwear manufacturers are being urged to set up manufacturing plants in Serbia.
Nis and the surrounding region has attracted a growing level of investment from foreign textile firms in recent years with manufacturers attracted by financial incentives, such as government subsidies, as well as its strategic position as a link between southern and central Europe and the emerging markets of Eastern Europe.
Turkish investors began looking at the Serbian market five years ago, when some companies opened factories in southern Serbia, mainly in the textile sector, and interest has been constantly growing, Medjedovic stated during the Vienna Economic Talks forum in Belgrade.
Most recently, Aster Textile, one of the largest and fast growing knitted jersey and woven womenswear, menswear and childrenswear producers in Turkey, invested €7.2 million on a new plant in the southern Serbian city of Nis. Of the total €7.2 million investment, €2 million was funded by State Aid. The site employs 250 people although this number is expected to rise to more than 2,000 over the next three years.
Aster stated that that within three yearsit would be producing garments worth around €60 million of women’s and menswear per year for some of the world's leading brands.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is looking to provide same and next day deliveries to more than 600 million mainland Chinese consumers, with the opening of its own flagship online store on JD.com on Thursday.
That launch comes nearly a year after Walmart and JD.com, China’s biggest online retail service provider by revenue, formed a strategic alliance and more than a month since Walmart’s British supermarket chain Asda opened a store on the same platform.
Ben Hassing, the senior vice-president of e-commerce at Walmart China, stated thatWalmart is committed to providing the most trusted retail experience to consumers in China.
It assured mainland customers they would be buying only authentic, quality goods with categories including food, consumables, general merchandise, toys and apparel since all items are sourced through the same supply chain system that Walmart China’s network of stores use.
Walmart have made a US$50 million investment last October in New Dada, the joint venture between JD.com and delivery specialist Dada that operates the mainland’s largest on-demand logistics and online-to-offline grocery platform.
By the end of March, New Dada had partnered with 80 Walmart stores and 165 Yonghui Superstores to provide consumers with one-hour home delivery of groceries ordered through the JD Daojia Dada app. JD.com invested 4.3 billion yuan (US$624 million) to acquire a 10 per cent stake in Fuzhou-based Yonghui in 2015.
JD.com had 236.5 million active customer accounts at the end March. Orders placed through mobile accounted for 81 per cent of the total orders fulfilled by the company in the first quarter.
The deeper alliance between Walmart and JD.com could help bolster e-commerce spending on the mainland, already the world’s largest online retail market.
JD.com posted total revenue of US$28 billion last year, compared with rival Alibaba Group’s turnover. On the other hand according to Forrester research Mainland China is forecast to become the first market to reach US$1 trillion in total online retail sales by 2020, driven by a rise in mobile e-commerce transactions.
Collection of expanding fashion brands and retailer's locations across the U.S., is expanding its operations to include a new retail concept boutique in Minneapolis called Union 73. The new retail store opened at the Minneapolis City Centerat 40 South 7th Street, and is prepared to offer trendy, fast-fashion product at affordable prices. Union 73, the chic men's and women's retailer is the brainchild of entrepreneur, Marcus Lemonis, who is the star of CNBC's hit reality series, the profit in which he lends his expertise to assist struggling small businesses around the country.
Lemonisstated that the company is very excited to open the new Union 73 boutique in the beautiful and energetic Minneapolis City Center and its goal is to be the go-to trendy retailer in this community with our ever-changing collection of top quality men's and women's fashions, and we are offering over 1,500 pairs of jeans in all styles, washes and price points to start this new concept.
The 7,000-square foot boutique will feature an extensive selection of denim, jackets, tops, sweaters, dresses and bottoms, as well as a wide range of shoes, accessories and handbags, comprised of well-known national brands. The product base is finely crafted merchandise and the business model is focused on a strong commitment to one-on-one customer relationships.
Stephanie Menkin, president of the Marcus Lemonis Fashion pointed out saying that they are thrilled to introduce Union 73 to the fun, fashionable and diverse consumer base in the greater Minneapolis area, with affordably priced apparel for our transient consumer. The company is looking forward to offer monthly sales promotions for the customers and adding to overall growth as a company, with additional locations of Union 73 already in the works in Jacksonville, and Chicago.
Italian mill Berto is working to ensure that its manufacturing practices achieve sustainable products. With 130 years of business under its belt, Berto has proved to be a sustainable player in the denim market.
For autumn/winter 2018, Berto is offering bio eco denim, a collection of denim made with GOTS-certified organic cotton and GOTS-certified organic indigo dye.
The organic cotton is grown using methods with a low environmental impact. During the cultivation of organic cotton, neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers are used. The cultivation process also requires a lower amount of water and helps prevent water contamination.
The organic indigo dye used in the collection stems from the processing of the leaves of the plant Indigofera Tinctoria. The cultivation of these plants occurs to the total exclusion of harmful chemicals. The indigo dye is extracted from the leaves through a process of bio-fermentation in water.
Berto is one of Italy’s premium fabric manufacturers. It operates a 100 per cent Made in Italy production chain.
Berto doesn’t use standard equipment. The machines are specially designed together with suppliers to ensure optimal performance. For selvedge denim, Berto even travelled back in time to find the perfect looms. All the blue selvedge fabrics are woven on Belgian Picanol shuttle looms from the 1950s. The looms were bought from a certified supplier and have been carefully restored and are constantly maintained to ensure the highest level of performance.
For online retailers like Amazon, that means a limited share of the profits though it is seriously looking at whether technology can change the fact of the matter. Though online retail is its mainstay, it seems the giant firm is showing a significant interest for the fashion industry as well.
However, analysts in the retail and fashion industry have doubted the ability of the company to seduce the client base considering the company is not what one would call fashion-esque. According to Richie Siegel at business of fashion, the front end experience is not particularly optimized for the merchandising of emotional products while the association with the discounting turns off the luxury form of brands. A number also still question as to whether the site is ever going to have the capability of creating the dream needed to sell top of the line dresses and bags worth a thousand dollars each.
Echo look is a version of the company’s line of Echo branded smart speakers. With the device, the firm is looking to solve the pains of apparel shoppers through making the experience of buying clothes online more natural using personal recommendations and the ability to virtually assess their outfits. It has the ability to place Amazon squarely on the path towards domination of the American apparel industry.
According to the research studies Amazon currently holds 16.6 per cent of the market share for apparel spending by the shoppers who are between 18-34 years. Other firms like the Gap and Macy’s account for 3.6per cent and 3.4per cent of the Millennial’ online apparel spending.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is also not afraid to consider long-term strategy when taking on a new market. The market has been salivating over the fashion industry since 10 years ago when it acquired the multi-brand women’swear e-tailer Shopbop.
Amazon also sponsors two international fashion weeks that now have the brands name on their titles such as the Amazon Fashion Week Tokyo or the Amazon India Fashion Week. This year, the company has escalated its efforts by quietly launching private label apparel brands dealing in men’s accessories and women’s dresses and handbags, as well as a recently launched lingerie line at cut-rate prices.
Los Angeles based technology and software company Tukatech is increasing its offerings for the design community. At the recent Texprocess technology trade show in Frankfurt, Germany, Tukatech introduced a new suite of applications, including several patent-pending applications and processes the company says will eliminate sketching and any “misinterpretations” that occur as a result. The software uses existing 3-D garments, real-scale prints, Pantone colors and pattern repeats.
Tuka3D designer edition is a visualization application that allows designers to show their concepts virtually without the need for a pattern. The patent-pending program allows users to virtually build a garment from a library of virtual assets. Users can see print repeats and placements in true scale on the garment body and the final-concept visuals can be presented in a design meeting, used in a tech pack or sent to a vendor for visual reference.
TUKA studio is a suite of print-development applications that can be used with other graphic-design software programs. Users can create and preview repeat patterns, check and change colorways, and separate colors for print screens. There are fabric-texturing modules to create enhanced digital fabrics. Users can create yarn-dye weave patterns and knits, which can be viewed on a design flat or on a virtual garment.
An Adobe Illustrator plug-in allows users to add placement prints to graded patterns that can then be sent to Tukamark, Tukatech’s marker-making software, which configures efficient marker layouts.
Tukatech’s Tukacloud operates as a “Web-based digital sample room,” allowing designers and merchandisers to work directly with vendors and manufacturers. In the cloud, users can access all data exported from Tuka3D and other systems in a central platform. Digital files are stored in a protected platform that allows users to access information from anywhere in the world. The Tukabank is a library of PDF patterns or 3-D virtual style files available for download.
Fibre producer Lenzing is launching a new eco fibre called EcoVero which it says is helping it achieve the next milestone in its sustainability journey by offering eco-friendly viscose with the lowest environmental impact in the industry, setting a new industry wide benchmark.
In a press statement today it confirmed that the environmental awareness of consumers has been growing steadily over the last decade, more recently in the fashion and textile industry. Textile consumption is expected to double by 2025, and the industry is anxiously looking for more sustainable solutions with minimal eco-footprint. Achieving low environmental impact requires developing eco-friendly raw materials and a sustainable manufacturing process.
EcoVero fibres are made from wood, a natural and renewable raw material which, according to Lenzing comes from sustainable forestry plantations that are certified by industry-leading associations such as FSC. Lenzing has a comprehensive wood sourcing policy that it says “goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that the most sustainable wood sources are used for viscose production. The company enforces strict environmental standards during viscose production and has invested millions over the years to achieve an eco-friendly production process.
The EU Eco Label is a sign of environmental excellence and is awarded to products and services meeting high environmental standards throughout their lifecycles: from raw material extraction to production, distribution and disposal. In addition, Lenzing says, its flagship viscose production site in Austria uses a significant amount of renewable bio-energy in the manufacturing process.
Lenzing is keen to emphasize EcoVero’s transparent supply chain. Robert van de Kerkhof, Chief Commercial Officer, explains that with this special identification technology for EcoVero fibres, the company are supporting the trend in the fashion industry towards greater transparency.
EcoVero fibres offer an extensive marketing service package and are part of Lenzing's branding and licensing program. Fabrics containing EcoVero fibres can be certified at the company’s in-house certification centres in Europe and Asia.
Lenzing concludes that the new fibres will be launched at the global textile trade shows from this autumn onwards. At present, the sampling phase has started and special customers are developing products using EcoVero fibres.
Uncertainty around the US general elections likely cut Kenya’s apparel exports by 2.3 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015.Apparels exported declined from 84.6 million pieces in 2015 to 74 million pieces in 2016.
Some 58 per cent were supplied to the US market, out of which 94.2 per cent constituted exports of garment products. But the country diversified its apparel markets to include Europe and Canada. And the alternative market is evolving in significance.
The textile and garment industry in Kenya received a boost in 1990 when the government liberalized the economy and adopted an export led growth strategy.
The textile and garment sector in Kenya has been through turbulent times in the last ten years with the sector gaining ground in the last four years due to more emphasis on exports to the American market through the AGOA initiative of duty free and quota free access to the US market in addition to permitting the use of third country fabrics in the production of garments for the market.
About 90 per cent of the existing textile and garment producing firms based in Kenya are established with the primary objective of overcoming quota limitations in their existing facilities and thus the entire production is focused on quota categories that have high premiums and are in short supply.
Karl Mayer, a leading warp knitting machinery manufacturer, has reported a successful showcase at Techtextil, May 9 to 12, Germany.
The company held 200 high-level conversations. Most visitors came from Germany, followed by Turkey, Poland and India. Many visitors came from India and Turkey, but the majority of the visitors to Karl Mayer’s stand were Europeans.
Karl Mayer’s stand, with its modern design, accounted for the success of this machine manufacturer at the fair.
Many existing clients came to discuss projects, customer trials and machine purchases, and some sales contracts were signed. The company also made some important new contacts.
Many new clients came to visit the stand, including manufacturers from other technology sectors and the clothing industry, who are looking for new end-uses in the field of semi-technical textiles, for example.
Karl Mayer’s stand at Techtextil was featuring an impressive presentation of a future building material, textile-reinforced concrete. This composite enables lightweight, narrow concrete components to be produced using tough, carbon-fiber grids.
As an alternative to conventional steel reinforcements, which are liable to corrode, warp-knitted structures are increasingly attracting the attention of the construction industry – and consequently the textile industry.
Karl Mayer’s machines and equipment for the technical textile sector also include warp preparation systems, particularly the manual sectional warping machine for use in the production of woven technical textiles, geo grids and coating/backing substrates.
India and Russia plan to strengthen economic cooperation in the coming decades.
The areas under focus include Indian pharmaceutical plants in Russia, long-term leasing of agricultural land in Russia’s Far East, export of automobile components from India and entry of new Indian textile players in Russia.
The list also includes heavy engineering under the Make in India initiative, investments by leading Indian IT firms in Russian tech parks, entering the infrastructure market in Russia, collaboration in mining and metallurgy sector, and joint collaboration in the Arctic sector.
Indian pharmaceutical companies are looking at the possibility of setting up plants in Russia.
Agriculture and food processing sector is one of the emerging areas of cooperation. There is considerable demand for import of agricultural products, mainly fresh vegetables and fruits from India. One of the reasons for the inability of Indian exporters to cater to this demand is the logistics. One solution proposed could be direct long-term contracts between major supermarket chains in Russia and major exporters from India who can deliver on time, maintain quality of packaging and phytosanitary standards.
Heavy engineering is another promising area for mutually beneficial cooperation, not only in terms of trade, but also for joint ventures and technology transfer. Russia is looking for collaboration with Indian companies for developing IT parks for software development and is ready to provide facilities to Indian companies interested in creating their IT base in Russia.
