The petrochemical industry is witnessing a rebound of sorts since the last three fortnights. On the back of an increase in demand, prices of petrochemicals are touching new 2009 highs, leading to major companies increasing their operating capacities.
Mitsui Chemicals which operates two naphtha crackers at Chiba and Osaka with production capacities of 553,000 tons per annum and 455,000 tons per annum respectively has also reportedly increased its operating capacities in April.
Fibre2fashion spoke to Mr Takehiro Suzuki of the CSR & Corporate Communications Division of Mitsui Chemicals, who said, that, “The average run rates of Mitsui Chemicals' naphtha crackers until March were approximately 70 percent”.
He added by saying, “However from early April, run rates improved to approximately 85 percent and production adjustments for inventory optimization in the first quarter (January through March) of 2009 have also been completed”.
To another question as to how he sees the petrochemical industry faring, he said, “Although demand in Japan is still slow, we are seeing improvement in demand from China. The economic stimulus measures by the Chinese government have resulted in an increase in Japanese exports to China”.
“However, exports from China have not yet shown improvement and it is still unknown as to whether the government measures will actually stimulate the economy and lead to economic recovery”, he concluded by saying.
Source: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/
A London based creative director; Mr Graham Hollick will be providing a new vision to the craftsmanship of women artisans of the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). Towards this end, a premium clothing collection will be launched by the year-end at Ahmedabad, Delhi and Mumbai.
SEWA is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. SEWA’s main goals are to organise women workers for full employment, whereby workers obtain work security, income security, food security and social security (at least health care, child care and shelter).
SEWA had recently launched a clothing label Hansiba from fabrics stitched and embroidered by its own women members. The collection includes clothes, accessories and home furnishings using basically, kalamkari, blockprinting and cotton fabrics. Mr Hollick will now help launch a premium collection.
To know more about this wonderful idea, Fibre2fashion spoke to Ms Viloo Mirza, Consultant at the SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre, who said, “Graham Hollick is giving probono creative inputs at SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre to empower the women artisans who are the shareholders of this unique company”.
She continued by saying, “This is the first model of its kind with whom Graham Hollick wants to establish long term relationship. He is a very established designer since the last 12 years. SEWA has worked out three design collections which will be showcased in Ahmedabad in the month of December with a fashion show”.
Source: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/
It is said that the best time to expand your business is in times of recession, but how many of the entrepreneurs have the guts to believe in this adage is the moot question. But there is indeed a tribe of brave businessmen from the hosiery knitting and clothing industry are setting up new stores at a time when other major retailers are either downsizing or closing down operations.
Bison London, a Ludhiana based hosiery and garment brand is one such label which has expanded its retail footprint in recent months despite the adverse circumstances. The company Superfine Knitters recently opened showrooms in Ludhiana and Jammu and is planning to open more such outlets in Dehradun, Amritsar and Saharanpur.
Fibre2fashion spoke exclusively to Mr Vivek Lakra, Director of Superfine Knitters to know and understand his strategy. We asked him the rationale behind opening outlets in such difficult times, to which he explained, “We are opening stores in a very sensible way and on very reasonable costs in high potential area and we are rejecting deals where we predict poor sales and where we find costs are high”.
Next we asked him the unique selling proposition (USP) of his stores and his brand, to which he replied by saying, “Till date we have 7 stores operational and 90 percent of the feed back is fully positive on price, schemes we offer, product range, fitting, colour schemes, hand-feel of the fabrics, etc, which we consider as a excellent feed back and our USP is international clothing designed by global designers at genuine prices”.
To conclude the interview, we asked him his opinion as to when he expects the situation to stabilize, to which he said, “At least 1-2 years”. The other main reasons for this expansion by a few apparel brands is that store rentals have fallen by as much as 40 percent in some cities and towns and this could be the perfect time to open a store, before the rentals start moving northwards once again.
Source: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/
The economy of Bangladesh is very much dependent on exports from the garment industry which realizes a value to the tune of US $11 billion and provides direct and indirect employment to millions of people in the country, particularly women of Bangladesh.
But the tsunami like economic crisis and the resultant slowdown has put brakes on the high flying exports industry which was chalking phenomenal growth rates in the last few years and has the potential to weaken the economy of the country, brought about by falling exports since the last few months.
In our continuing series to bring to our reader the impact of the crisis on the textile and apparel companies of different countries, Fibre2fashion spoke to Mr Syed Naved Husain, CEO of Beximco’s Textile Division and South Asia’s largest and best-known vertical textile operation, which he helped setup.
Mr Husain grew to fame by successfully focusing Beximco’s massive operations on flexible manufacturing, speed to market and innovation, which resulted in bagging orders from globally renowned retailers like Zara, JC Penney, Philip-Van Heusen, Calvin Klein, H & M, MotherCare, Perry Ellis, and C & A.
We began the interview by asking him the impact of recession on Bangladesh, to which he said, “The impact of recession has been small in Bangladesh, as it has relatively low cost labour, a huge young work force, and cheap water and energy and moreover, with over 30 years experience in garments exports, Bangladesh has a very high standard of needle work”.
He added by saying, “The productivity is rapidly increasing as more sophisticated factories have been set up with world class industrial engineering as well as planning systems. Wal-Mart is doing better than most retailers in USA and in many ways Bangladesh has became the "Wal-Mart" of the world”.
Next we asked him to reveal his company’s reactions and strategies to counter the crisis, to which he said, “Beximco is a full service vendor; i.e. from fibre to garments and trims to washing, as well as large international design and product development facilities. We have focused on ‘innovation’ and ‘speed’ as our primary drivers”.
He explained by saying, “We deliver orders from fibre to garment in 50 days and reorders in 30 days. We have invested heavily in design and product development in Bangladesh, London, Italy and Hong Kong and every eight weeks we come up with a catalog of new looks, apparel and collection of fabrics”.
He continued “Our Design Studio makes collections for several leading retailers and achieves an acceptance rate of over 70 percent. It has taken us many years as an organization to achieve these analytical and creative abilities and also a ‘mind set’ to be market driven and ready to change course on short or no notice”.
“I feel thatmany self confident companies see the recession more as an opportunity than a threat. At Beximco we continue to invest heavily, expanding and hiring more people and those companies who get scared and cut back, will in my view surrender their future, he concluded by saying.
Next we asked him on his company’s plan for new products and target market segments, to which he said, “Beximco has a large men's, women's and children's divisions handling a wide variety of woven, denim and knit tops and bottoms, as well as selected outerwear and presently we will focus every day to get better at these categories rather than spread ourselves thin”.
“Beximco has established a very successful and fast growing retail chain of specialty stores for right trend fashion apparel and accessories under the brand name of ‘YELLOW’. The name ‘YELLOW’ was inspired by Van Gogh's famous Sun Flower painting and represents youth, energy and globalization”, he winded up the interview by saying so.
Source: http://www.fibre2fashion.com/
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