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Gap Inc., is the newest member of the Cotton LEADS and extends its commitment to sustainable raw material sourcing. The leading global retailer joins more than 470 program partners that acknowledge the ongoing sustainable gains by United States and Australian cotton growers. Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta brands, had previously announced a range of sustainability goals, including a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from their global operations by the end of 2020. In April, Gap brand committed to sourcing 100% of its cotton from more sustainable sources by 2021, and Athleta aims to use 80% sustainable fibers in Athleta apparel by 2020.
“Reducing the climate and water impacts of our product assortment and our global supply chain remain a key focus for us,” says Melissa Fifield, Senior Director of Sustainable Innovation at Gap Inc. “The GHG reductions already achieved by cotton growers from Australia and the United States give us confidence that by partnering with the Cotton LEADS program we can encourage and support measurable, real reductions to help meet our sustainability goals.”
Mark Messura, senior vice president Global Supply Chain Marketing at Cotton Incorporated, a founding member organization of the Cotton LEADS program, highlights other benefits. “Retail, brand and manufacturing partners with program recognize the investments in responsible production that Australian and U.S. growers are making, along with their commitment to supporting improvements in cotton globally. These efforts in continual improvement come from the cotton producers themselves and impose no downstream costs on the supply chain.”
Cotton LEADS is a partnership between the entire U.S. and Australian cotton industries to promote responsible cotton production practices. One unique program aspect is that the growers invest in their research and development and share best practices for the industry. The program aims to influence cotton supply chain strategies by raising awareness of characteristics common to U.S. and Australian cotton industries.
Three months after GST was implemented, exporters in Gujarat are facing working capital issues due to delayed refunds of integrated GST (IGST). Under GST, exporters must pay IGST and claim refunds for tax paid on exported goods and services; or they can export goods and services by furnishing a detailed bond or letter of undertaking before each export, without paying IGST and then claim refund of input tax credit.
With no GST refunds for two months, merchant exporters are facing a major working capital crunch. Due to this exports are likely to be down by five or ten per cent in the immediate future. If refund inflows are not available, there may be losses. Order books - especially of merchant exporters- have taken a hit.
Liability on processing refunds for industries across the country is Rs 65,000 crores. Small exporters are facing cash flow issues and in the long run, it will reduce competitiveness. Major exports from Gujarat are: textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ceramics and gems and jewelry. Merchant exporters in the pharma industry are facing an estimated 50 to 60 per cent working capital crunch. The ceramics industry business has declined significantly. Business is down by more than 50 per cent. As most merchant exporters operate on margins of around 10 to 12 per cent, it becomes difficult to fulfil orders.
Neiman Marcus is looking at replacing its current CEO Karen Katz. Katz will abdicate her role as CEO at the retailer but will retain her seat on the board. She has worked at Neiman Marcus' since 2010.
This US luxury department store is now looking outside the company for her successor, but no timeframe has been mentioned for her replacement.The Dallas-based group, which owns MyTheresa.com and Bergdorf Goodman, has been struggling since 2013, post Ares and Canadian public pension fund CPPIB acquired it from other private equity firms and exited with approximately $5 billion in debt.
In March last year, the troubled Neiman Marcus entered into discussions with Hudson's Bay Co. for a potential buyout, but the Canadian retailer backed out from any deal following Neiman's high debt.
Neiman was also looking at other options to change its capital structure, but backed out of a restructure plan as its heavy debt made any acquisition hard to structure. The firm's most recently financial quarterly result saw losses extend to $26.2 million when compared to $23.5 million over the same period last year, as debt and previously accrued losses continued to drag the business down.
Despite this Neiman Marcus showed a 4.2 per cent rise in comparable revenue in the Q1 of 2018, which it attributed to its ‘digital first' strategy and investments in new technology. Quarterly revenue rose to $1.12 billion, up 3.8 per cent from $1.08 billion a year ago, the company announced.
The rate of job creation has slowed down in Bangladesh. Between 2003 and 2016 an average of 1.15 million net jobs were created in Bangladesh each year. Between 2003 and 2010, total employment grew by 3.1 per cent a year before falling back to 1.8 per cent between 2011 and 2016, impacting women and youths in particular.
The country saw strong GDP growth but this is not reflected in the job market. The largest job provider in the private sector in readymade garments factories has seen a fall in job creation. Even the participation of women has declined.
The rate of job creation has slowed down due to infrastructure gaps, predominance of informality in labor markets and slow structural reforms. In the last few years, Bangladesh witnessed a six per cent GDP growth rate driven by industry and services and despite a decrease in productivity in the agriculture sector. Growth is expected at 6.4 per cent in fiscal year ’18, driven by industry and service. Export growth is likely to pick up modestly with the expected recovery in global trade. Remittance may turn around and private investments may pick up.
Economic growth remains resilient in spite of volatile export growth and shrinking remittances.
Yet again French luxury brand Louis Vuitton has become the world's most valuable fashion brand. The ranking is based on the brand's financial performance and strength of both shaping customer choice and commanding premium prices.
Louis Vuitton featured on the 19th position in Interbrand's Best Global Brands 2017 list. It is the highest-ranking position for any fashion company in the world. The brand is preceded by tech giants such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft, which held the top three positions. With profit margins approaching 40 per cent, Louis Vuitton has also bagged the honor of being one of the most profitable brands. The brand applauds its new creative director for the upsurge as 2014 was characterized by strong creative momentum and dominated by the fabulous response garnered by Nicolas Ghesquière’s first runway shows and the new products.
Louis Vuitton has connected the brand with culture, says Rebecca Robins, global director at Interbrand and co-author of Meta-Luxury. Louis Vuitton manages to appeal to rising starlets and established names at the same time. Hollywood veterans and fashion icons such as Jennifer Aniston, Catherine Deneuve, and Michelle Williams are among the brand's loyalists. French First Lady Brigitte Macron is also seen sporting Vuitton quite often.
Cotton prices have fallen in India and it can go down further when arrival starts picking up around Diwali across the country. The rise in acreage compared to previous year and a bumper crop are seen as the biggest factors that can see cotton prices stabilizing at around or even lower than the minimum support price.
The MSP for medium staple fiber of 27.5 to 28.5 mm length which is produced in Punjab is Rs 4,020 per quintal. Going by prices in the previous year, when they touched Rs 5,500 to Rs 5,600, cotton growers were expecting handsome prices this year as well.
After spending on pesticides and insecticides for fear of pest attacks on the cotton crop, cotton growers of Punjab are facing a double whammy of higher input costs and lower selling prices. Cotton was sown on 108.5 lakh hectares in the country in the previous season and in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan it was sown on 12.5 lakh hectares. This time, the acreage increased to 123 lakh hectares across the country and in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan it increased to 16 lakh hectares.
In the country, 350 lakh bales were produced last season and the number is expected to reach 385 lakh bales. Total consumption in India is of around 320 to 325 lakh bales. So 60 lakh bales will be surplus. This factor has brought down prices.
Hessnatur, an organic brand from Germany, has introduced high quality and ecologically sustainable fabrics for selvedge denim. Selvedge jeans are handmade from natural materials as its raw materials bio cotton and indigo plant are cultivated under fair conditions as well as in its natural environment.
Selvedge comes from the English self-edged and stands for the original selvage of the fabric. A selvedge jean can be seen on the outer seam. Here the two original selvedges meet each other on the inner side of the pants. This looks beautiful, and is particularly durable, as the edges cannot fray. The selvedges are straight, the jeans are also available in a straight unisex cut.
Hessnatur selvedge jeans are a favorite for all who appreciate tradition and craftsmanship. Every jeans is woven on traditional Japanese handlooms: the fabric is softer, no sizing agents are used, since the warp threads are less stressed than in industrial processing. It takes a weaver around ten days to prepare and weave 35 meters of denim fabric.
Hessnatur has chosen Bangladesh as it has become a major sourcing hub for trendy denim products. This project is about job creation in one of Bangladesh’s least developed areas and the preservation of traditional crafts. The idea is to promote traditional craftsmanship with regard to ecological and social sustainability as well as to create jobs in one of the least developed areas of Bangladesh.
People want denim with color. There’s more trend towards colors, less towards indigo. Diehard denim buyers won’t be looking away from the trusty blues but those that follow fashion will likely be keener on color for the coming season.
Corduroys and velvet will start to introduce color into more bottom weights, which will then lead to greater uptake in twills. Corduroys in the coming season will come with colorful tie-dye effects—which many customers have expressed interest in—or in pinks or coral colors with detailing at the cuff.
Hong Kong-based Prosperity Textile, which does garment and piece dyes for its Feel It collection of denim with Tencel branded lyocell fibers, has pink and olive colors in the line. Tencel holds color well. Thailand-based AMC has been aggressive on color for some time. AMC does double dye denim, where the fabric gets dyed khaki and then a color pigment coating is added to the face. When washed there is color loss and distressing reveals the original color of the jean—and buyers are keen on the coloring.
The denim area of Premiere Vision Paris showed colors from coral to pink, olive and tie-dye. Japan’s Toray has an indigo velvet blazer with cotton. The indigo gives the jacket an authentic denim look. Since customers like soft fabrics, Toray uses Lenzing modal and Tencel for most of its collection.
Apparel fabrics trade show Première Vision Paris was held September 19 to 21, 2017. More than 60,000 visitors attended. The number of exhibitors also grew thanks to the addition of The Sourcing Connection and Bag & Shoe Manufacturing sections.
The number of international buyers, coming from 129 different countries, increased by 8.5 per cent and accounted for a 73 per cent share of the event’s visitors. The most represented countries were in order France, followed by Italy, the UK, Spain and China. Turkey overtook both Germany and the USA, while Japan snatched ninth place from Belgium.
The show was buoyant not just in terms of visitors. Exhibitors at the PV Leather show, which was quieter than its neighbors in recent seasons, noted a new kind of energy, welcome news for the industry. One of the highlights of Première Vision Paris was the ceremony for the PV Awards, whose jury was headed this year by an international celebrity, actor and designer John Malkovich. Besides its conference program, notably focusing on Fashion Tech, the Parisian show staged a plethora of other events, including exhibitions, performances and a concert, all of them adding to the session's special atmosphere.
The show also announced the launch in 2018 of the Première Vision marketplace, a virtual extension of the event's various different sessions, initially offering access to exhibitor samples.
Due to a hike in prices of gas and electricity in Bangladesh, businesses are facing hardships. Uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity is a must for the textile industry, as blackouts significantly degrade the quality of spin. A number of factory owners are facing trouble as they do not have any forward linkage industry and are struggling to survive.
Over the last two years, gas prices have seen a 222 per cent jump. A crisis in the primary textile industry may create a negative impact in the country’s 28 billion dollar apparel industry, as the former industry supplies the lion’s share of raw materials to the latter.
If there is any adverse impact on the primary textile industry, it would consequently hurt the apparel sector, as manufacturers will have to buy the material from other countries at a higher price. The textile industry contributes more than 12 per cent to the country’s overall GDP. Almost 90 per cent of the demand for knits, and 40 per cent of the demand for woven fabrics, by the export oriented readymade garment sector are met by the primary textile sector.
To cope with existing power crisis, primary textile millers want the import of energy efficient machinery to be allowed.
