Archive for October, 2008
Livemint, India
Karva Chauth is a big day for North India and the suited staff in the Dior store at Emporio Mall, Delhi’s latest luxury address , are busier than usual.
Interestingly, male customers outnumber women at the store; they’re choosing between the Dior 61 and Lady Dior lines of bags- gifts for their devoted partners, while some women hover around the Le Plisse Dior line.
Bags are obviously popular, though a walk around the elegant 3,500 sq foot anchor store reveals some quick purchases of eyewear and footwear as well. The most animated area of activity though is where John Galliano’s famed artistry has lured two of Dior’s loyal ladies to its corner . Half an hour of some perfect fits later, a purple chiffon gown and red dress from the fall winter prêt-a-porter collection are wrapped and ready.
“The high-end customers are developing very fast in emerging markets and if you do not position yourself in response to this consumer you will lose big retail. A luxury brand cannot have a middle image in India and a top image in New York; the image has to be top globally.
The consumer will not accept two positions,†says Sidney Toledano, president and chief operating officer of the Euro 12.5 bn Dior Group. It is a strategy which has worked in various new markets, says the handsome 57-year-old President as he reels off examples from Russia to China.
It is definitely a busy day at the Emporio store Toledano is visiting, but the COO, seemingly unperturbed, chooses to speak at a decibel level drowned by the activity around him. He is dressed in a fitted, steel grey, thin pinstripe suit with a white shirt and black tie, a restrained but natty ensemble that suits his near sixfoot frame well.
Toledano may head a fashion house whose silhouettes have been applauded at ramps across Paris, Milan and New York and whose legacy boasts of legends like Yves Saint Laurent and Gianfranco Ferre, but his sense of dressing, he says, come from his parents. “I’ve loved fashion since my engineering days, though I was not a dandy. I wanted clothes which expressed something. Maybe because of my Mediterranean origins I love the outdoors, going to places and meeting people and dressing well is part of the seduction process,†says Toledano.
October 31st, 2008
African Press Agency, Senegal
APA-Kigali (Rwanda) A UK-based textile industrialist, Raj Loomba of the Linku industrial group, Thursday said his group intends to invest over US$100 million in a textile industry in Rwanda.
He said the move will not only boost the country’s industrial out-put but also economic growth in the region.
Speaking on a discussion panel during the on-going East African International Commonwealth Business Forum, Raj said that Rwanda needs not just a plant but a well developed textile industry given position in the region and Africa.
He said the experience he has with China since 1987, there is no doubt Rwanda too can develop at the same rate in a few years given her development oriented leadership.
Raj said the one hundred million dollars would be used in importing industrial machinery, hiring skilled labour both in installation and textile work among others.
“For twenty years I have been in China, seeing the country growing from scrape, I am sure Rwanda too can make it in few years,” Raj said.
He however noted his potential threats as poor infrastructure, lack of skilled labour, lack of raw materials among others but said with government facilitation such huddles can be overcome.
The mayor of Kigali City Dr Aisa Kirabo Kacyira assured the prospective investor all the needed support asking him to closely work with the government to carry out the feasibility study for the project.
October 31st, 2008
Business Standard, India
Komal Amit Gera / New Delhi/ Chandigarh
The revision of minimum support price (MSP) of cotton has affected not only the textile mills, the ginning mills in Punjab are also in a soup. About a dozen ginning mills in Abohar and Malot in the cotton-growing belt of Punjab have been shut down due to an unviable business situation.
According to Rajinder Garg of the Chirag cotton factory, which has its units in Fazilka, Giddarbah and Malot, most of the unit mills have stopped functioning because they cannot lift the raw cotton at Rs 2,800 per quintal (the MSP for Punjab).
He added the ginners paid the highest tax of 12.5 per cent in Punjab (2 per cent infrastructure tax, 4 per cent market fees and rural development fund, 2 per cent laccha hartiya commission and 4 per cent VAT) as compared to about 7 per cent in other states.
“Due to the unreasonable cost of inputs and high tax structure, we sell cotton to the spinning units at Rs 24,000 per 37.32 kg, where as they get the same from other states at Rs 22,000 per 37.32 kg,” he said. The leading textile houses in Ludhiana and Lalru are buying from other states due to the price difference.
Garg has three units with a cumulative capacity of about 50,000 bales per annum, as the family has been in this business for generations. “We do not have any other skills, so we want to continue at the minimum margins also,” he said.
He leased his Fazilka unit to the Cotton Corporation of India at Rs 490 per bale this year as the business for him became unviable.
The plight of other ginning mills in the state is similar.
Pankaj Sharda of Sharda Cotton Mill, which technically falls in the Sirsa district of Haryana, said the mill was dependent on cotton from Punjab. He had set up a new fully automated unit with an investment of Rs 4 crore recently, but is now doubtful of making optimum utilisation of his assets, due to the high cotton prices.
Sharda is also contemplating handing over his unit to the government agencies to cover his minimum costs.The association of ginning mills, the North India Cotton Association, has not been able to fight for their cause, Rajender Garg.
October 31st, 2008
New Vision, Uganda
By Samuel Balagadde
THE Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has raided SEBCO Uganda, a textile firm, over sh800m in unpaid taxes.
The tax body’s enforcement team impounded 10 containers of textile raw materials for the Masanyalaze Zone-based company on Entebbe Road in Kampala last week.
Ronald Kyeyune, the SEBCO personnel manager, disclosed that the raid had brought work at the company to a standstill for the last five months. This, Kyeyune, added, had rendered 250 employees including Chinese experts redundant.
He disclosed that several interventions by top government officials and the Kampala City Traders Association to release the containers had not yielded results.
Kyeyune claimed they cleared all the taxes but URA insisted that the containers’ tax values were under-declared.
“The Chinese experts who have been training our workers on multipurpose sewing machines are also stranded. But we are still paying them highly despite the closure of the company,” Kyeyune lamented.
He explained that other heavy-duty industrial ironing machinery had also got damaged because they had not been operational for long.
But Enock Walugembe, the head of URA enforcement department, clarified that SEBCO declared the goods as raw materials whereas they were finished products.
He explained that SEBCO will have to pay extra taxes before the containers are released. Walugembe disclosed that SEBCO paid only sh3m per conatiner in Value Added Tax instead of the sh80m charged per container of finished goods.
He added that several containers belonging to various companies had been seized over tax under-declaration.
SEBCO is owned by city tycoon John Sebalamu who owns several commercial buildings in the city centre.
URA is fighting tax evasion and smuggling as it strives to increase revenue collection.
October 30th, 2008
Fibre2fashion.com, India
October 29, 2008 (Sri Lanka)
A report named “Jaqalanka Closure Report” was recently commissioned by the Fair Labour Association an international NGO. The report investigated the causes leading to closure of three garment factories under the management of the Jaqalanka group.
From amongst many reasons that the report mentions, one of the main conclusions that it has arrived at is that the garment industry in Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly unviable.
Though the industry prospered in the initial phases on basis of low costs, increasing costs are making the sector unviable.
The key reason attributed to increased costs is the shortage of skilled workers particularly in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone. This shortage is leading to ever increasing wages and in providing extra benefits to workers to retain them. This has lead to a sharp increase in costs for the garment manufacturers.
From amongst other reasons citied by the report, a rise in prices of key input raw materials, fuels, electricity and transportation have also contributed to the closure of three units of the group. The manufacturers are not able to pass on the increased costs to their buyers and have had to absorb them leading to a financial crisis.
The report concludes by saying that there was no evidence to suggest that the closures were effected by pressures from trade unions in any way which is confirmed by the owner according to the report.
Fair Labour Association, is an international NGO trying to end sweatshop labour. The fact finding was conducted by T-Group Solutions of New Delhi, with assistance from CSR International of Colombo.
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India
October 29th, 2008
China Daily, China -
(Xinhua)
China will take comprehensive measures next year to ensure a stable textile export growth, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Sunday.
Since the country’s textile export faces complex situation amid a world economy slowdown and financial turmoil, the country should try to provide its textile industry with a sound external trade environment, said a senior official with the MOFCOM’s foreign trade department.
Figures from China Customs showed the nation’s textile and garment exports hit $136.94 billion in the first nine months, up 8.1 percent year on year. The growth rate was 11.9 percentage points lower from the same period last year.
Of this, export to the US stood at $19.24 billion in the first three quarters, representing an year-on-year increase of 1.4 percent, but the growth rate was 28 percentage points lower from the same period last year.
“The MOFCOM will strengthen cooperation and dialogue with textile trade partner countries. Relevant departments should ensure services and guide the enterprises to upgrade industrial structure,” he said.
Meanwhile, he urged textile enterprises to adjust policies to adapt to a changing trade situation, avoid expending production ability at random, lift quality standard and enhance international competition ability.
October 28th, 2008
Hindu, India
Bageshree S. and Sharath S. Srivatsa
BANGALORE: This Deepavali has not brought cheer to owners and workers of apparel factories here with the slowdown in the world economy affecting the industry. Several factories here are facing problems with deferred purchase.
The orders for factories, which are dependent on exports, mainly to the U.S., have come down by about 10 per cent following deferred buying by big apparel brands.
Industry insiders say that the situation might become worse in the next quarter if the global situation does not improve by then.
Reduced spending
Rising unemployment and reduced spending by the Americans have forced some of the leading brands in the U.S. to close down their outlets, which in turn has affected the apparel industry here. The U.S. accounts for 55 per cent of all global apparel imports.
Sandeep Walia, Chief Executive Officer of Arwind Apparels, told The Hindu that the industry was in “recessionary mode,” and industries were looking at “building in efficiency” and “cutting out all the fat” by cutting down on expenses, such as avoidable air travel, and “increasing plant efficiency”.
While some of the smaller units have closed shop, many are giving extended Deepavali break to workers with a rider that they will make up for this when the orders start pouring in.
The fact that people in Europe and the U.S. are not walking into stores of branded apparels and buying brands such as GAP, Lands End, Ann Taylor, West Seal and J.C. Penny has affected business, said Ravi Kishore, an industry consultant.
“Many of these brands which have businesses in India have deferred purchase,” he said.
Acknowledging that there is an “anticipation of slowdown” by December if the present trend continues, Jagdish N. Hinduja of Gokuldas Images, said that orders were “reasonably good” at present.
Feeling the heat
Meanwhile, the downward trend has turned the heat on about six lakh garment workers in the city.
The industries are resorting to reducing the shift size and giving offs to the employees.
Kumari, a worker in a factory at Gowdanapalya near Uttarahalli, said that production targets were so strict now that workers found it difficult to take a break even to drink water.
She had no work between October 2 and 13 and is yet to know if she will be paid for this period.
Holidays
A company on Mysore Road, which employs 2,700 workers, has been giving week-long holidays to employees by turns.
“They have been paid for this period and told that they should compensate for it when work picks up again,” said K.R. Jayaram of Garment and Textile Workers Union.
Vishalakshi, who worked as a tailor at MD Apparels at Madanayakanahalli, lost her job when the unit closed down. She joined another factory in the same locality, but was paid only Rs. 120 a day as against Rs. 147 paid earlier.
“The market is down and they said I could quit if I was not happy with the pay,” she says. Ms. Vishalakshi is now looking for her third job within six months.
A manager of a unit near Nelamanagala said he had instructions to cut about 10 per cent of the employee strength after strict performance appraisals. Overtime wages had been stopped, he added.
October 27th, 2008
CNN
By Mark Tutton
For CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) — Is that your dress ringing? It could be, if you’re wearing an M-Dress — a silk garment that doubles as a mobile phone. Produced by UK firm CuteCircuit, the M-Dress works with a standard SIM card. When the dress rings, you raise your hand to your head to answer the call.
This futuristic fusion of fashion and technology is becoming more common as clothes designers are increasingly incorporating electronics into their garments.
Jane McCann, Director of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology at the University of Wales, says the clothing and electronics industries are collaborating in an unprecedented way — what she describes as “a new industrial revolution.”
McCann predicts that in the next 10 years clothes will have all kinds of in-built functionality. “A garment might have devices on it to help you find your way somewhere, or to tell you how fit you are. It could tell you where someone is to help you meet them, or tell you what’s on at a museum or club,” she told CNN.
She says that while the sports and fitness industries have led the way in wearable technology, producing shoes with built-in pedometers and active wear with integral iPod controls, the fashion industry is currently lagging behind. View image gallery of futuristic fashions
“Wearable technology is coming through into useful everyday clothing more than it is on the catwalk. The catwalk still treats wearable tech as flashing earrings or sensational things,” McCann says.
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While high fashion may be slow to adopt practical technology, designers have been quick to embrace technology in order to create dazzling new styles. Hussein Chalayan, twice British Designer of the Year, has used his shows to experiment with dresses that glow with built-in LEDs or emit spectacular red lasers.
Others, like Angel Chan, have produced beautiful designs using thermochromic inks that change color when you touch or breathe them, while Montreal’s XS Labs has used a shape-memory alloy called Nitinol to produce extraordinary dresses that change shape while you wear them.
As well as functionality, McCann predicts that mass customization will emerge as a major trend in clothing. “You can already go into a sizing booth and get measurements of your size and shape.
Perhaps you could store that information on a card and that could be used to customize clothing.
“In theory, if you’ve got technology that’s cutting out garments one at a time it could produce clothes informed by your own size requirements,” she says.
But mass customization could extend beyond getting the perfect fit — you might also be able to customize the technology in your clothes.
McCann explains, “You might want built-in controls for an MP3 player but I might like heart-beat monitoring. I’d like mine to have a digital print of the sleeve but my friend wants a picture of her boyfriend on the back. Some of that could happen in the 10 years.” E-mail to a friend
October 25th, 2008
AFP
1 day ago
DHAKA (AFP) — Mohammad Soharwardi cannot remember the last time his clothing factory lost so many orders over such a short space of time.
Bangladesh’s garment sector is usually working full steam at this time of year to meet Christmas orders, but he says buyers have become conservative in the past few months and business has dropped right off.
“This is usually the busiest time of the year, but orders are down by 40 percent on last year,” said Soharwardi, whose company Rupashi Group owns nine factories making apparel for American and European retailers.
The financial turmoil gripping global markets has left Bangladesh’s main bourses and banks largely unscathed, but the meltdown has weighed on consumer spending in the world’s top economies, dragging down retail sales.
This, according to Soharwardi, is in turn weighing heavily on the Bangladeshi garment industry, the world’s second biggest after China, as hundreds of manufacturers in the impoverished country face a squeeze on orders.
“Early this month, one of our biggest American buyers cancelled an order to supply half a million pieces of apparel each month until the end of the year,” Soharwardi said.
“They say there is a huge slump in their sales because of problems in the US economy.”
Soharwardi was speaking on the sidelines of a garment exhibition in the capital Dhaka, where 56 manufacturers this week hoped to tap the Japanese market for more business to make up for falling sales to the US and Europe.
The garment sector pumps 11 billion dollars a year into Bangladesh’s economy, accounting for about 80 percent of exports and employing more than 40 percent of its industrial workforce.
Bangladesh saw 6.2 percent economic growth last year, bolstered a 17 percent increase in garment sales. Orders to the US and Europe make up 90 percent of all shipments.
Finance minister Mirza Azizul Islam has ruled out any major slump, but the country’s leading garment-makers say the meltdown is biting.
“Regardless of what is being said, we are already feeling the heat,” said Fazlul Hoque, a leading manufacturer and president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA).
“One of my Canadian buyers has just delayed a big order by three weeks because he wants to see what unfolds in the world markets before making any fresh commitment, and whether consumers tighten their belts,” Hoque said, adding that he was not hopeful of a quick recovery.
“Orders in September fell by 10 percent, and the indications are that the industry will experience a sharp decline like the one we experienced immediately after 9/11 in 2001,” he said, referring to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.
Dhaka University economics professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, a former finance minister, said the knock-on effect of the problems in the US and the European Union spelled big trouble for Bangladesh.
“Nine out of 10 garments made here go to the US and Europe. We are not prepared enough to face the challenges. High food prices have already affected wages. There is an acute crisis of gas and power and labour relations are not good in the industry,” Mahmud said.
Mohammad Abdul Momen, whose Pride Group makes ladies tops for big Spanish label Zara, said companies desperate to keep orders were taking drastic measures.
“There’s panic in the industry so manufacturers have started undercutting each other to keep orders,” he said.
“We’re already offering the cheapest price in the world to manufacture clothing so going any lower is unhealthy. It’s a game of death. We are sacrificing profits at the cost of our future.”
October 25th, 2008
Antara, Indonesia
Jogjakarta (ANTARA News) - Gusti Kanjeng Ratu (GKR)Hemas, wife of Jogjakarta governor Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, said the promotion of batik needs to be started from the education sector.
“While batik used to be taught at schools in Jogjakarta, many schools are no longer teaching Batik,” she said here Wednesday, in connection with a Jogjakarta Batik show to be held at Taman Budaya Jogjakarta, October 25, 2008.
She said batik lessons should be improved, “we don`t want foreigners claiming batik as their work of art.” This could happen if the education and the society are no longer interested in batik.
“On the contrary, the government also need to help and facilitate batik designs and motives to get a copyright,” she said.
Hemas said education should convince the outside world that Batik is Indonesia`s traditional trademark which other countries don`t have.
“Therefore a batik school curriculum is needed in regions with a batik tradition like Jogjakarta, Solo, Pekalongan and Madura,,” she said. (*)
October 24th, 2008
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