From the Sector

CARBIOS and FCC Environment UK, a recycling and waste management companies in the UK, have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to jointly study the implementation of a UK-based plant using CARBIOS’ PET biorecycling licensed technology.  CARBIOS’ biorecycling technology is key to supporting FCC’s continuing goal of contributing to the circular economy by exploring new processes and technologies to produce recycled PET (r-PET) from PET plastic and textiles. For CARBIOS, this LOI confirms interest from the waste management sector, in addition to plastic producers, and would mean a foothold for its technology in the UK.

FCC’s continuing contribution to the UK circular economy
Recycling has plateaued in the UK in recent years, but UK Government policy very much supports a continual move to a more circular economy which FCC Environment supports. Achieving a circular economy however requires innovation and investment to deliver real environmental change. Exploring biorecycling is one way of doing this, so FCC is keen to understand this technology better by seeking an evidence based view on the advantages of using enzymes for the treatment of PET such as lower energy consumption and better circularity of the polymers back into the PET production lines. The depolymerization process developed by CARBIOS also facilitates the recycling of all kinds of PET waste, including problematic fractions such as polyester textiles, into high-quality recycled PET.

UK PET biorecycling plant would process hard-to-recycle waste
In order to tackle the plastic waste crisis, CARBIOS has developed a enzymatic depolymerization technology that enables efficient and solvent-free recycling of PET plastic and textile waste into virgin-like products. CARBIOS has ambitious plans to become a leading technology provider in the recycling of PET by 2035. In addition to the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant which is currently under construction in Longlaville, France, this UK-based plant would process PET waste that is currently not recyclable using conventional recycling technologies, such as colored, multilayered or textile waste.

Doors will open next week for trade fair Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, with over 900 exhibitors from 15 countries and regions set to welcome global buyers at the National Exhibition and Convention Center (Shanghai) 14 – 16 August. Leveraging its 30 years of expertise in the home and contract textiles industry, the Autumn Edition will serve as a sourcing platform for industry players to forge impactful business partnerships and exchange market insights.

With the fair spanning 100,000 sqm of exhibition space in Halls 5.1, 5.2, 6.1 and 6.2, visitors are preparing to explore the entire home and contract textile spectrum at the gateway to Asia’s home living. To help buyers streamline their sourcing and maximise relevant business opportunities, 14 product zones will be set up, each spotlighting in-demand segments within the industry. These zones and their exhibitors include:

• Bedding: Ideaz Lifestyle Limited, Kageyama & Co Ltd, Shaoxing Chuanshi Home Textile Company Limited, Zhangjiagang Coolist Life Technology Co Ltd, Zhejiang Huaxing Feather & Down Products Co Ltd
• Carpets & rugs: Beijing Home Value Co Ltd, Beijing U-living Home Decoration Co Ltd
• Curtains & curtain fabrics: Dongjae Co Ltd, JWL FABRICS CO LTD, Textile Depo Co Ltd, Xi'an Zhong Yang Window Blinds Article Co Ltd, Zhejiang XIDAMEN New Material Co Ltd
• Designer studios: Fine Art Inc, IKT Surfaces and Textures SL, Tela's Design Lda
• Editors: Beijing Ya Da Home Decoration Articles Co Ltd, Prestigious Textiles (Shanghai) Limited, Raffinato Shanghai Ltd Corp
• Leather: Anhui Anli Material Technology Co Ltd, Dongguan ARA Manufacture Co Ltd, Scope Leather Company, Zhejiang Changfeng New Material Co Ltd
• Upholstery & sofa fabrics: Hangzhou Eastern Fabric Co Ltd, Mobus Fabrics Ltd, Suzhou Larbene Textile Co Ltd, Zhe Jiang Maya Fabric Co Ltd

In addition, specialised product zones for accessories, textile design, intelligent equipment, loungewear & bath, sun protection, table and kitchen linen, trade publications, and whole home products will further enrich buyers‘ sourcing experiences.

In the 30th year’s edition, buyers will have the opportunity to procure products from suppliers covering 15 countries and regions across Asia, Europe and North America. International exhibitors such as Advansa Marketing GmbH (Germany), Elastron Group (Portugal), Mobus (UK) and Morgan (USA) are set to participate.

Additionally, the newly introduced Uzbekistan Pavilion will showcase locally distinctive products, while the returning Türkiye Pavilion and Belgium Zone will also be present. Key exhibitors in these areas include:

• Türkiye Pavilion: organised by Uludag Textile Exporters’ Association (UTIB), including Aleran Tekstil (Bona Home), Kucukcalik Tekstil and Weavers Tekstil.
• Belgium Zone: exhibitors include CTF2000 and Love Home Fabrics.
• Uzbekistan Pavilion: organised by Trade Development Company JSC, comprised of suppliers such as Great Kokand and Sam Rafoat Tekstil.

Buyers from 75 countries and regions have already pre-registered. Furthermore, 11 buyer delegations from 15 countries, including India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam and more will augment the premier platform's diversity, and provide invaluable connections for building global business partnerships.

Four themes shaping the future of the industry
This year, the fair will stage a slate of concurrent events, organised around four central themes pivotal to the industry's growth. Key events on the agenda include:

Design Inspiration
The display area illustrating the central aspects of the upcoming Trends 2025 ‘Healing Home’ concept will be located in Hall 6.1 – the main focus of an exclusive tour guided by the trend designer. About Healing, the featured six-designer panel discussion on Day 1 afternoon, will further delve into the healing theme from an international perspective.

Other highlighted seminars, awards ceremonies and display areas include: 30th China Home Textiles Design Festival & Designer Recommended Brand Awards; China Intangible Cultural Heritage of Textile Exhibition; Design for Fun, Using Playful Methods to Support Sustainable Development by Mr You Zhou; Psychology at Play in Design by Ms Pallavi Dean, and Weaving Paths to Sustainability: the Impact of Textile in Interior Spaces by Mr Saverio Quaia.

Business O2O
Conducted by Ms Esra Lemmens, the theme’s highlighted seminar is titled Unlocking Opportunities: Successful Business Strategies for the Middle Eastern Design Market. Along with the 10th Home Textiles and Furniture Industry Ecological Integration Forum, the events under this theme will explore effective business strategies across sectors on Day 1 afternoon.

Industry Empowerment
Bridging Borders: A Designer x Producer Talk on Sustainability will bring together designers and manufacturers from the East and West to address sustainability challenges and strike a balance among all stakeholders – this round table discussion is scheduled for Day 2 afternoon.

Textiles & Technologies
Within the Econogy Talks umbrella, the Sustainable Fibre Forum in Home Textiles will provide a platform for green producers such as 3M, Advansa, and Indorama to share their latest eco-friendly innovations with home textile applications. Moreover, attendees interested in integrating sustainability into their Messe Frankfurt trade fair involvement, can gain insights on the Texpertise Econogy programme during an extensive session held on Day 2 morning.  

Beyond the stage, the 7th China International Fibre Art Exhibition will present artisic creations in its display area in Hall 5.1, with previous iterations well-received by fairgoers.

Martin Shankland, Executive Board member for Global Operations, has informed adidas AG’s Supervisory Board that, after 27 years with the brand, he will step down from the Executive Board and leave the company. In mutual agreement with Martin Shankland, the Supervisory Board approved the termination of his appointment as an Executive Board member as of August 10, 2024.

Martin joined adidas Russia/CIS in 1997. During his tenure as Managing Director, he established adidas Russia/CIS as the market leader through the creation of a strong direct-to-consumer business. After leading adidas Emerging Markets region from 2017, Martin joined the Executive Board in 2019, with responsibility for product operations, sourcing and supply chain as well as tech, data & analytics, non-trade-procurement and sustainability. During this period, Martin led major transformation initiatives, including creating a more responsive, transparent and sustainable supply chain and built a more tech and data capable organization aided by the insourcing of tech talent into a network of global tech hubs.

Hoa Ly, SVP Sourcing, will have responsibility for all sourcing operations at adidas reporting into adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden. adidas CFO Harm Ohlmeyer will assume additional responsibility for supply chain and tech. As of August 11, 2024, the company’s new Executive Board will consist of Bjørn Gulden (Chief Executive Officer, Global Brands), Arthur Hoeld (Global Sales), Harm Ohlmeyer (Chief Financial Officer) and Michelle Robertson (Global Human Resources, People and Culture).

On August 1, Marius Berlemann took over as the new Managing Director for Operations. The personnel change is accompanied by a restructuring of management responsibilities.

From now on, Messe Düsseldorf’s leisure trade shows will be consolidated under the leadership of the operative management. To that end, the responsibility for boot, a large watersports show, will shift from President & CEO Wolfram N. Diener to Marius Berlemann. The new Managing Director for Operations will also be in charge of CARAVAN SALON Düsseldorf, a leading international trade show for mobile travel.

In turn, drupa, the global No. 1 trade show for printing technologies, will no longer be a part of operative management, instead moving to Wolfram N. Diener, who’s already in charge of many of Messe Düsseldorf’s industrial trade shows: a leading global trade show for the wire and tube industries, wire und Tube; an international valve trade show, VALVE WORLD EXPO; a packing trade show, interpack; a leading trade show for the metallurgy and foundry industries, GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST; and numerous other trade shows of the portfolios. One recent addition is XPONENTIAL, a trade show for uncrewed systems and robotics in the U.S., which in February 2025 will for the first time host a European spinoff event in Düsseldorf: XPONENTIAL Europe.

Besides boot and CARAVAN SALON, Marius Berlemann will be in charge of the trade show for plastics and rubber, K; a leading international trade shows for medical devices and healthcare, MEDICA and COMPAMED; a leading trade show for rehabilitation, prevention, integration and care, REHACARE; a trade show for Wines and Spirits, ProWein; a retail trade show, EuroShop; a trade show for retail technology, EuroCIS; a trade show for the glass industry, glasstec; a global trade show for occupational safety and health, A+A; an international cosmetics and wellness trade show, BEAUTY DÜSSELDORF; and aninternational trade show for hairdressers, TOP HAIR; plus a number of international trade shows in the respective portfolios.

While the operative business has been reorganized, Bernhard J. Stempfle, Managing Director Finance and Infrastructure, will continue to be in charge of the entire finance department as well as of the Digital Strategy & Communication division and the Technology division.

Consisting of Wolfram N. Diener, Marius Berlemann and Bernhard J. Stempfle, Messe Düsseldorf’s management is optimally positioned to work side by side with the entire workforce to elevate the company’s competitive edge.

Transforming old textiles into new, high-quality materials on a large scale – that is the subject of a new innovation project by eeden, the Textile Logistics Center (CTL) at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer IML, and Hohenstein.

The project aims to promote a circular textile economy through technological and logistical optimizations. eeden's innovative fiber-to-fiber recycling process will be further developed to efficiently process textile waste from laundries. Additionally, logistics will be restructured, from collection to recycling, to ensure a resource-conserving and efficient supply of this material stream. With a total investment of over €625,000, the project is co-financed by the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the European Union as part of the Green Economy in NRW innovation competition.

Hohenstein and eeden jointly conduct analytical tests on used textiles to accurately determine the properties of the textile waste after various cleaning cycles.

Subsequently, the CTL, supported by eeden, will develop a concept for the efficient procurement of raw materials and their integration into a sustainable business structure.

Finally, the new process will be validated by eeden on a technical scale. By 2026, the close collaboration between eeden, the Center Textile Logistics (CTL) and Hohenstein aims to promote textile circularity and make a significant contribution to reducing textile waste.

CARBIOS and SASA, a manufacturer of polyester, fiber, filament yarn, polyester-based polymers, specialty polymers and intermediates, have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to cooperate through SASA’s potential acquisition of a license for CARBIOS’ unique PET biorecycling technology. This licensing agreement would allow SASA to construct and operate an enzymatic depolymerization plant in Adana, Turkey, with a capacity of 100,000 tons per year of prepared PET waste, and would give access to a circular recycling technology, enabling the production of polyester pellets, fibers and textiles from various waste sources, including polyester textile waste. With CARBIOS' biorecycling technology, SASA would diversify its offering to meet the growing global demand for sustainable materials in the textile industry, primarily catering to the European market.

Less than 1% of textile waste is currently recycled into new textile fibers^[1].  With European regulations moving towards the incorporation of more recycled content (at least 20% of recycled fibers by 2030), demand for recycled polyester in the EU is anticipated to increase, naturally positioning Turkey as a major producer alongside Asian countries.  In this context, SASA is striving to become the largest supplier of high value-added polyester in the region and beyond. To achieve this, SASA aims to introduce recycling as part of its activities, which already encompass the whole value chain from PET production to fiber and textile conversion. CARBIOS’ PET biorecycling technology plays an important part in SASA’s ongoing transformation strategy, which includes back integration, capacity expansion, even higher competitiveness, as well as circularity.

CARBIOS has developed a enzymatic depolymerization technology that enables efficient and solvent-free recycling of PET plastic and textile waste into virgin-like products. CARBIOS has ambitious plans to become a leading technology provider in the recycling of PET by 2035. After the recent announcement of a joint Letter of Intent with Zhink Group in China, this new Letter of Intent for a potential licensing agreement in Europe confirms global traction for CARBIOS biorecycling technology, and marks another significant step in the international roll-out of its licensing model. In addition to the world’s first industrial-scale enzymatic PET recycling plant which is currently under construction in Longlaville, France, this potential plant in Turkey would process PET waste that is currently not recyclable using conventional recycling technologies.

[1] System Circularity and Innovative Recycling of Textiles | Circular Cities and Regions Initiative (europa.eu)

Spinnova Plc and ECCO Investment Corporation have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding the future plans for their 50/50 owned joint venture company Respin Oy. The development work of Respin’s leather waste-based fibre has shown good quality results during the current year. ECCO has successfully made a prototype shoe, which includes fibre from the Respin pilot line produced using Spinnova technology. A product launch by ECCO, using the fibre produced by Respin, is expected to take place before the end of Q1/2025.

Spinnova and ECCO see significant opportunities in scaling up Respin’s production volumes to a commercial level. According to the LOI, both parties are committed to scaling up operations and will work together in order to achieve a final decision, at the latest, by the end of Q1/2025 on how to proceed with the production scaling and commercialisation of Respin.

In line with Spinnova’s strategy and the Respin joint venture agreement, Spinnova will be the technology provider for any production scale-up. Furthermore, as stated in Spinnova’s strategy, Spinnova does not itself expect to raise further external financing to fund the increase in Respin’s production capacity.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited announces its role in the T-REX (Textile Recycling Excellence) Project. This initiative aims to establish a harmonized EU blueprint for the closed-loop sorting and recycling of household textile waste to help the fashion industry transition towards a more circular and sustainable future. By bringing together key stakeholders across the entire value chain, the project positions itself at the forefront of sustainable innovation.

The designated spinning partner, Indorama Ventures, will process the chemical recycled feedstock into polyester yarns and fibers through the extrusion process, ensuring the elimination of impurities. The company’s participation in the project also aligns with its goals of driving the circular economy and circular fashion industry through PET recycling and supply of recycled materials, underscoring its commitment to sustainability.

The T-REX Project launched with the aim of creating a harmonised blueprint which will support the creation of a circular system for post-consumer textile waste within Europe. The EU funded project brings together a consortium of 13 major players from across the entire value chain along with research institutes to transform end-of-use textiles from waste into valuable feedstock and a commodity for new business models that can be adopted at scale.

Mahlo GmbH + Co. KG announces its participation in the Febratex trade show from August 20 to 23, 2024. The event will take place in Blumenau, Brazil, a hub for textile and garment production.

The company will present its latest advancements in straightening technology and process control. The booth will be jointly hosted by Mahlo’s sales agency MBR Textile and Christian Matthias, the head of Mahlo’s application department. They will be available to provide in-depth knowledge and demonstrations of Mahlo's solutions.

Mahlo’s technology addresses the critical needs of textile manufacturers, ensuring high-quality production with minimized distortion and optimized processes. The company’s automatic straightening system guarantees thread-
straight fabric across various applications, thanks to its modular design that can be tailored to individual production environments. Additionally, Mahlo offers several process control systems designed to optimize stenter frame operations by measuring and controlling parameters such as dwell time, thread density, and residual moisture. These systems help manufacturers improve textile quality, save raw materials, and reduce energy costs.

Major developments:

• Currency-neutral sales up 11%, driven by adidas brand accelerating to 16% growth
• adidas brand up double digits across all channels with increases in all markets
• Underlying gross margin improves around 1.5 percentage points to 50.5% despite significant currency headwinds
• Operating profit of € 346 million compared to € 176 million in prior-year period
• Healthy inventories at a level of € 4.5 billion to support future top-line growth
• Full-year guidance upgraded on July 16 to reflect current brand momentum

Full-year outlook
High-single-digit revenue increase expected in 2024
On July 16, adidas raised its top- and bottom-line guidance as a result of the better-than-expected performance during the second quarter and taking into account the current brand momentum. adidas now expects currency-neutral revenues to increase at a high-single-digit rate in 2024 (previously: to increase at a mid- to high-single-digit rate). The company’s operating profit is now expected to reach a level of around € 1.0 billion (previously: to reach a level of around € 700 million). Within this guidance, adidas assumes the sale of the remaining Yeezy inventory during the remainder of the year to occur on average at cost. This would result in additional revenues of around € 150 million and no further profit contribution during the second half of 2024.

Outlook impacted by significant currency headwinds
The company continues to expect unfavorable currency effects to weigh significantly on its profitability this year. These effects are negatively impacting both reported revenues and the gross margin development in 2024. This was particularly the case during the first half of the year.