21 April 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Brands (RBL) has acquired a 51 percent stake in couturiers Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla (AJSK).

The partnership will accelerate the 35-year-old couture house's growth plans in India and across the globe.

It will enable the brand to strengthen India’s position as a creator finest fashion across the globe, believe the two designers.

ALSO READ Reliance Brands: 6th ‘Designer Brand’ acquisition & counting

Based in Mumbai, the couture label Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla is renowned for its classic and elegant designs.

The fashion house features three other labels, Asal by Abu Sandeep, a diffusion, formal, occasion and wedding wear, womenswear label; Gulabo by Abu Sandeep, luxe pret separates, featuring casual and formal wear for women; and Mard by Abu Sandeep, a formal and occasion wear men’s label.

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The Mukesh Ambani-controlled oil-to-retail conglomerate, Reliance Brands is expanding its portfolio in the luxury and retail space.

In 2021, it entered a strategic alliance with designer Manish Malhotra’s brand and also made an equity investment in fashion designer Raghavendra Rathore’s company and Abraham & Thakore. At present, RBL operates 680 stores and 916 shop-in-shops in India.

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27 April 2022, Mumbai:

BGMEA President seeks the support of journalists in promoting ‘Made in Bangladesh’ a prestigious brand.

BGMEA President Faruque Hassan has sought cooperation and support from the media to change the narrative of Bangladesh’s garment industry which has a lot of achievements and positive stories to tell the world.

ALSO READ BGMEA x CNN to promote Bangladesh's RMG sector globally

“It goes without saying how important the contribution of journalists to the development of the garment industry is.

Faruque Hassan made remarks while speaking at an Iftar Mahfil organized by BGMEA for the journalists working in the print, electronic and online media at Dhaka Club on April 8.

RELEVANT NEWS BGMEA: BAAFA Exec Summit participation to boost Bangladesh’s RMG

In his address to the journalists, he said, “Many thanks for your sincere support to the garment industry, a sector that has been making an invaluable contribution to the socio-economic transformation of Bangladesh, making a difference in the lives of millions of people.”

BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim, Vice President Md. Nasir Uddin, Directors Abdullah Hil Rakib, Haroon Ar Rashid, Barrister Vidiya Amrit Khan, and Neela Hosna Ara, Chairman of BGMEA Standing Committee on Press, Publication & Publicity Shovon Islam, Chairman of BGMEA Standing Committee on Trade Fair Mohammed Kamal Uddin Chairman of BGMEA Standing Committee on UD-Woven & Knit Md. Nurul Islam were present at the Iftar Mahfil.

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CREDITS: BGMEA (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff)

22 April 2022, Mumbai:

The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA)’s a critically acclaimed project, the Garment-to-Garment Recycling System (G2G) has swept up two more prestigious international design awards: the Gold Award of the iF Design Award 2022 in the Retail/Sales category in mid-April and the Good Design Awards 2021 (Retail Fitting) of The Chicago Athenaeum in December 2021.

ALSO READ HKRITA: Wins Prize @ Special Edition'22 Inventions Geneva Evaluation Day

The iF Design Award is one of the most prestigious design awards in Germany and this year attracted nearly 11,000 submissions from all over the world to this highly respected competition.

Of the many submissions, only 73 finally obtained a Gold Award. To achieve this level of recognition, a submission must excel in terms of conceptualisation, form, function, differentiation, and impact.

G2G’s zero water use was commended as a sustainable upcycling solution.

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“This ingenious system opens up the prospect of ad-hoc and on-site-recycling systems in a variety of locations,” the jury noted. The G2G also won the Good Design Awards 2021 in the Retail Fitting category.

Organised by The Chicago Athenaeum, an International Museum of Architecture and Design, this competition received over 1,100 submissions from more than 50 nations.

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21 April 2022, Mumbai:

Sivaramkrishanan Ganapathi, Managing Director, Gokaldas Exports says, the newly approved production linked incentive (PLI) scheme will benefit his company from FY24 onwards.

India’s leading garment manufacturer and exporter based out of Bengaluru, Gokuldas Exports has a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore with a diverse workforce of over 20,000 employees at 23 factories located in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamilnadu.

ALSO READ Gokaldas Exports reports rise in net profit

Ganapathi believes the scheme will boost MMF investments in India.

It will not bring in any benefits for the company in FY23 as it already has a strong order book and expects strong growth during the year.

RELATED NEWS Gokaldas Exports shares witness record high upward trend, in one month

The Indian government approved 61 companies for the textile production linked incentive (PLI) scheme with investments worth Rs 19,000 crore and an expected turnover of Rs 1.84 lakh crore in 5 years.

It hopes to accelerate India’s textile exports to $100 billion and create 2.4 lakh new jobs during the period.

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21 April 2022, Mumbai:

Retailers and apparel brands including Lifestyle, Reliance Retail, Raymond, and Woodland said they will either hold product prices or take only marginal hikes despite unprecedented inflation across input costs as it could derail the recovery witnessed over the past few weeks.

"As a retailer, we have taken a stance of not increasing product prices for the next six months since it could affect the positive consumption trend we are seeing now," said Devarajan Iyer, chief executive of departmental store chain Lifestyle International.

ALSO READ January retail sales restricted to 91 per cent of pre-pandemic levels: RAI

Retailers across apparel, lifestyle products, restaurants, and supermarkets are expected to post double-digit revenue growth year-on-year for the March quarter despite a slow start due to the Omicron wave, with the reopening of offices and schools, and weddings driving demand.

Amit Agarwal, group chief financial officer at Raymond, added that the company will look at cost efficiencies and reducing discounting instead of direct price hikes.

RELATED NEWS Retailers across India on an expansion drive as sales surpass pre-COVID levels

India's largest retailer, Reliance Retail, has also decided not to increase the prices of the apparel owned by them fearing it could jeopardise demand generation.

In branded apparel, profitability has been under pressure for more than a year given sharp raw material inflation.

For instance, shoe and apparel maker Woodland managing director Harkirat Singh said raw material prices have gone up by 20-25% in the last 3-4 months, yet the company will not hike prices for the next few months.

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CREDITS: ET Pehal News News Nation India (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).

23 April 2022, Mumbai:

Nine years ago, on 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed, killing 1,138 people and exposing the incredibly unsafe labour conditions for factory workers in the garment sector.

Today our thoughts are with all those that had to live through this terrible, preventable tragedy, as well as with the families of those who did not survive. Nine years on, the struggle for safe factories continues, as some major garment and textile brands still continue to refuse to put their workers’ safety first.

ALSO READ BGMEA x UNI Global Union to tie-up

The Clean Clothes Campaign network marks this day by calling upon all companies that have not yet done so to sign the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Sector.

Several widely known brands, such as Levi’s and IKEA, have over the past nine years refused to join the safety mechanism that was created in response to the collapse.

This programme is now in its third iteration as the International Accord. 171 brands sourcing from Bangladesh have signed this agreement, including fast fashion giants like H&M, Inditex (Zara), and Fast Retailing (UNIQLO).

By refusing to join and pay into the programme, but still sourcing from the factories that are being improved by this programme, Levi’s and IKEA are freeriding on the efforts of these other brands.

RELEVANT NEWS BANGLADESH: Country's next development phase depends on industrialization

Our research into these factories shows how both brands have been profiting from progress made possible by the programme that they have failed to support both financially and politically.

In one factory, where IKEA had been present since 2007, the first inspection since the Rana Plaza collapse showed how many safety violations had been overlooked by IKEA’s internal system. This included a lack of fire-rated doors, the presence of locks on some of the exit doors, as well as cracks in the walls.

Even though the 2008 version of IKEA’s monitoring programme explicitly identified faulty electrical wiring as a health and safety risk to be avoided, the 2014 inspection identified lacking insulation of electrical wires.

Many of these issues were resolved in the years after, without IKEA contributing to the programme leading on this progress. 

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22 April 2022, Mumbai:

About the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an international charity that develops and promotes the circular economy in order to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.

ALSO READ YKK Announces New Collection of Recycled Zippers

About YKK

YKK solves the most complex fastening and attaching challenges. Since the company’s founding in Tokyo in 1934, YKK has continuously set industry standards for quality, innovation, and sustainability in the production of zippers, plastic hardware, hook and loop fasteners, webbing tapes, and snap and buttons.

YKK Corporation has joined the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Network to further demonstrate the company’s commitment to advancing the circular economy.

As YKK has long been a partner to many fashion brands that engage with the Foundation to drive circularity in the fashion industry, becoming a member of the Foundation's Network was a logical step to enable deeper collaboration among various stakeholders.

RELATED NEWS YKK(R) Touchlink™ Fastener to be Featured Across ARTILECT’s F/W 2022 Collection

With the release of the A New Textiles Economy report in 2017, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation brought the impact of the fashion industry into the spotlight and prompted many industry stakeholders to take action in order to unlock the environmental and economic benefits that a circular economy for fashion can bring to the economy, the environment, and society.

YKK has long been working to protect the planet through its products and processes and is further committed to actions and developments that are aligned with the Foundation's circular economy principles.

The circular economy is based on three key principles: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials, and regenerate nature.

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20 April 2022, Mumbai:

JUKI CORPORATION (Mr. Akira Kiyohara, Chairman & CEO located at Tama-shi, Tokyo, Japan) and PEGASUS SEWING MACHINE MFG CO LTD (Mr. Shigemi Mima, President & CEO located at Osaka-Shi, Osaka, Japan) have entered into a basic transaction agreement on April 26, 2021, to move forward with a business collaboration in the sales and development fields and announce to release the first model by joint development “Differential Lower Feed Safety Stitch Machines and Overlock Machines with integrated Control box M900/DJ series” in April 2022.

ALSO READ PEGASUS and JUKI enter into a fundamental transaction and cooperative sales agreement

The machines are supplied by both companies as part of the “JUKI Smart Solutions” product lineup.

Safety stitch machines and Overlock machines are lined up in M900/DJ series.

Product details： M900/DJ

RELATED NEWS JUKI takes a step closer to digitization with the launch of the ShuHaRi and E-learning platforms

M900/DJ series are compact sewing machines integrating with a direct-drive motor, control box, and operation panel. Pneumatic lint collector (LC) and presser foot lifter (PL) and operator-friendly LED light is provided as standard. M900/DJ2x can automatically set thread trimming function by detecting the edge of the material with a sensor.

With a safety function to prevent false operation, operators are prevented from mistakenly cutting material and getting injured by false operation.

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CREDITS: Juki (The news article has not been edited by DFU Publications staff).