From the Sector

Buyers looking for premium wool fabrics will be spoilt for choice at next month’s Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics. The epicentre for those with this product on their sourcing checklist is the Premium Wool Zone, with mills from the UK, Italy, France, Peru and elsewhere located here, while the Italy Pavilion also includes a number of quality wool suppliers. Rounding out the sourcing options, and adding further quality and price variety, are the 180-plus domestic wool suppliers in hall 6.1.

Some of the notable overseas brands participating this edition include Abraham Moon & Sons, Aris Industrial, Dechamps, Dormeuil, Dugdale Bros & Co, Ferla, Fratelli Piacenza, Holland & Sherry, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds, Lanificio F.lli Cerruti DAL 1881 and Scabal. The Spring Edition of the industry’s most comprehensive sourcing platform for the spring / summer season, Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, will feature some 3,300 exhibitors from around 20 countries covering all apparel fabrics and accessories product groups.

Growing affluence in China drives demand for premium wool fabrics

While a true global marketplace for the industry’s order writers with buyers from around 100 countries expected at Intertextile Shanghai next month, much of the demand for high-end wool at the fair comes from Chinese buyers thanks to growing affluence in the country. This is evidenced by the fact that Australian wool prices are at record highs this season, with China accounting for over 70% of Australian wool exports[1]. What’s more, whereas 15 to 20 years ago most wool imported by China was re-exported, nowadays around 60% is used to produce garments for the domestic market.

Intertextile’s number one position in China ensures that high-end domestic buyers are in abundance. “The buyer professionalism here is surprisingly high,” Mr Bob McAuley, Huddersfield Fine Worsteds’ President, explained last October. “We’re looking specifically for tailors and menswear specialty stores, and these type of buyers are definitely present.” Speaking about domestic market trends, he continued: “Retailers are not able to put all fashion in stores, so the made-tomeasure market is growing, especially in China. I’m surprised each edition how many new high-end Chinese brands we meet at this fair. There’s more menswear specialty stores opening here, whereas in the US, for example, the move is more towards going direct-to-consumer and online.”

Innovation and new-season styles added to heritage brands’ collections  

Precious metals such as gold and silver are known to have been worked into garments as long as 3,000 years ago, when they were hammered into extremely thin sheets then cut into ribbons. Modern technology has made this process much more straightforward, as well as opening up new opportunities. One of these is combining wool and silver, which Holland & Sherry will exhibit at Intertextile Shanghai. Their Argento collection of Super 200's wool fabrics applies a state of the art silver ion technology finish to superfine 13.5µ merino wool. This combination provides effective antibacterial protection, counteracting bacterial odour formation and keeping the fabrics hygienic and fresh. And because the conductive properties of silver prevent the build-up of static charge, the fabrics also benefit from anti-static properties.

While most collections in the Premium Wool Zone emphasise the brands’ heritage and tradition, like Holland & Sherry, some will be introducing new or updated collections. Dugdale Bros & Co refreshed its Royal Classic superfine Australian merino wool collection last year for the first time since 1987, adding around 30 patterns drawn directly from its original archive. Abraham Moon & Sons will showcase new fabrics at the fair for spring / summer ‘19 designed by Creative Director Martin Aveyard, which take in categories of classic, casual and contemporary, with a unique use of worsted, linen and cashmere combinations.

In addition to Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics, four other textile fairs also take place at the National Exhibition and Convention Center: Yarn Expo Spring, Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles – Spring Edition, fashion garment fair CHIC and knitting fair PH Value.

At Milano Unica, as key inspiring article, ILUNA presented an exclusive and elegant lace long dress, created in collaboration with Valery, starting from an all over textronic ultralight lace with a complex organic design completely made of recycled materials, using ROICA™ Eco-Smart family, a world-first range of responsible made premium stretch yarns, demonstrating, once more, how the two leading innovators continue their close partnership to present the most “advanced” and responsible solutions to the market today.

Nevertheless, for ILUNA smart innovation is not just a project even, at its space at Milano Unica visitors will had the opportunity to discover the new collection and also to experience and touch the latest boundaries of lace smart innovations. This season novelties include:

1. Green Label collection, the Iluna dedicated range featuring a new responsible approach in respect of the planet and people, able to deliver innovation, beauty and quality, at 360°. This season, in addition to the all over, jacquard, double jacquard and mesh offer, the line is also featuring  new stretch Galloon laces fully made with GRS certified recycled  materials, including the stretch thanks to the introduction of the unique ROICA™ sustainable yarn part of the ROICA™ Eco-Smart family. 
2. ILUNA is also proud to introduce a worldwide première: Eco- Smart family made of sustainable yarns allover laces made with NAIA cellulosic fiber by Eastmann combined with ROICA™ premium stretch sustainable yarn   realized on warp knitting jacquard looms. A unique innovation, with an interesting look & feel combined with a special softness!  
3. ILUNA has strategically included in all their stretch laces only ROICA™ Eco-Smart family of sustainable yarns since some time. The company is pleased to introduce the latest version of this yarns that are able to deliver 3 functions in one:  premium stretch, sustainability combined with the ROICA™ Colour Perfect family function offering excellent flawless and world unique colour dimensions, homogeneity.
4. For the salon, another première:  in cooperation with ROICA™ and Cupro by Asahi Kasei, Iluna is pleased to introduce ‘Smart Bucket Bag’ as a  special  limited edition gift. In origin, this was a roomy bag shaped like a bucket taller than it is wide with a rounded bottom. It first came to fashion in the 1900's, from a pouch with a string and a hardened bottom. Federica Annovazzi idea started from the traditional shape, but it went way beyond and imade it contemporary by smart materials and manufacturing. A beautifully crafted ‘double face recipe’ made  combining a luxurious Cupro fabric by Infinity with an Iluna stretch Double face Smart Bucket bag lace designed and produced with ROICA™ Eco-Smart family of sustainable yarns. The bag is manufactured exclusively by Made in Carcere a cooperative of women in rehabilitation, so creating a useful social exchange as well as a responsible and smart one. The Made in Carcere brand was founded in 2007, thanks to Luciana Delle Donne, founder of Officina Creativa, a non-profit social cooperative.
5. ILUNA can also boast its new STeP (Sustainable Textile Production) certification by Oeko-Tex, a certification that clarifies and communicates the company’s sustainable production commitment. In addition to this, all products are Oeko-Tex 100 certified.

ILUNA’s newest digital programs:

• ILUNA has created the new e-shop offering its exclusive materials to smaller companies looking for added values as: creativity, innovation, made in Italy and responsibility. 
• The whole collection is also visible online at its web site, previous registration, and orders can be done directly online always aiming to customers care.

Today ILUNA represents the largest European lace producer, and thanks to its journey toward the most contemporary way to innovate that includes responsibility, has also become a reference point in the international market for a lace offer that is beautiful, innovative and responsible at the same time. An alchemy of design and sustainable innovation, the only eco-fashion line that includes lace and stockings, capable of combining ethics and high quality standards with a fashion image of bright and deep colors. 

DyStar and RotaSpray successfully developed their indigo spray dyeing procedure for production on a bulk level which allows denim producers to significantly reduce their environmental impact.

The solution was first introduced at ITMA Milan in 2015. Since then, DyStar and RotaSpray have been working together to develop it further and make it available for bulk production in important Denim markets like Turkey, India and Pakistan. With the recent breakthrough, they are now announcing a salt-less dyeing solution for the denim industry. This new technology is awarded important ECO certificates and offers high flexibility for dyeing small lot sizes, reduced water usage and effluent discharge lower impact on yarn in the dyeing process and simplified recipe changes.

The new Spray dyeing technology combines DyStar Indigo Vat 40% Solution, Sera® Con C-RDA (a unique organic reducing agent) and the effective optimization of spraying parameters of the EPO patented RotoDyer® and the RotoCoater® spraying technology. Although rotary atomizers have been established for several decades in the textile industry they were mainly used for rewetting textiles with moisture. But recent cost pressure and a global demand for more sustainable solutions were motivators for the R&D of the industry and led to the recent technology leap.

On sheet dyeing ranges (slasher), with process and layout modifications, coatings including DyStar Indigo Coat, Cassulfon®, Remazol®/Levafix® and Imperon® dyes can be applied by spray dyeing as well. The spray application of fixing agents and oxidation chemicals can be integrated into sheet dyeing (slasher) as well as rope dyeing machines.

Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather, is pleased to announce the appointment of Holger Max-Lang as Managing Director of Lectra Central & Eastern Europe region, Russia. Holger Max-Lang is based in Ismaning, near Munich, Germany.

Central & Eastern Europe and Russia is a strategic region for Lectra, offering strong potential in the Group’s main market sectors thanks to: a robust automotive industry; a dynamic furniture industry, especially in Germany and Poland; and a close connection between fashion brands in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and suppliers in Eastern Europe.

Holger Max-Lang will focus on delivering Lectra’s customer-focused strategy to empower fashion & apparel, automotive and furniture businesses to succeed as they embrace Industry 4.0. Anchored in the digitalization of industrial processes, from design to production, Industry 4.0 is redefining how factories are organized; smart and connected, they are driving the value chain, propelling a new digitalized lifecycle for products. 

“The transformation to Industry 4.0 is in full swing: the Industrial Internet of Things, Software as a Service (SaaS), cloud technology, data analyses and data exploitation have become key,” underlines Daniel Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lectra. “Working for Lectra for over 15 years, Holger has a deep experience and knowledge of Lectra’s DNA, and is in a very strong position to support our customers in the digitalization of their processes.”

“Industry 4.0. started in Germany. Therefore, many companies are keen to adopt its principles in our region. Lectra is very well-positioned to support our customers in their transformation,“ says Holger Max-Lang. “In my role, I am looking forward to a growing dialogue with our customers and prospects, to bring them a full understanding of the expertise we have built - and are building. We will leverage this expertise to boost our customers’ competitiveness and generate higher added-value for their businesses.”

Following marketing and sales positions in the IT and automotive industry sectors, Holger joined Lectra Germany in September 2002 as a salesperson for automotive accounts. He then held diverse sales’ roles in the region, including the position of Sales Manager for all Lectra markets in Central & Eastern Europe region, Russia. Since September 2017 Holger has held the role of Business Development Director, Automotive, with the responsibility to develop the leather cutting activity worldwide.

Gorham, ME, USA – Montalvo, international specialists in web tension control, has promoted Bryon Williams to Director of Sales and Marketing. Mr. William’s will oversee Montalvo’s North America sales efforts, and global marketing strategy with an emphasis on building relationships within existing and new industries, managing Montalvo’s internal and external sales team, and continuing to further Montalvo’s marketing strategy. Previously Mr. Williams worked as Montalvo’s Global Marketing Manager.

Montalvo’s CEO Robin Goodwin says “Bryon has been with Montalvo since 2010, during which time he has shaped and elevated our global branding and marketing strategy while helping to manage our product portfolio. Bryon is highly committed to delivering excellence both internally and externally, directly benefitting our customers and his colleagues. He will bring this commitment and dedication to his new role, to grow Montalvo even further.”

Before Montalvo, Mr. Williams specialized in customer communication and marketing coordination at JobsintheUS.com and Sunday River Ski Resort. Mr. Williams attended Bryant University and earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administrant in Marking and Communication and is currently earning his Masters of Business Administration in Leadership from Saint Joseph’s College of Maine.

Beijing - Tencent Holdings Limited (“Tencent”) (00700.HK), JD.com, Inc. (“JD.com”) (NASDAQ:JD), and Vipshop Holdings Limited (“Vipshop”) (NYSE:VIPS), today jointly announced that Tencent, a leading provider of internet value-added services in China, and JD.com, China’s largest retailer, have entered into definitive agreements with Vipshop, a leading online discount retailer for brands in China, such that Tencent and JD.com will invest an aggregate amount of approximately US$863 million in cash in Vipshop at the closing of the transaction.

Pursuant to the share subscription agreement, Tencent and JD.com will subscribe for newly issued Class A ordinary shares of Vipshop in the amount of approximately US$604 million and approximately US$259 million, respectively. The purchase price will be US$65.40 per Class A ordinary share, which is equivalent to US$13.08 per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) of Vipshop, five of which represent one Class A ordinary share. The purchase price represents a 55% premium over the closing price of the ADSs as of the last trading day on December 15, 2017.

The transaction is expected to close in the near future, subject to customary closing conditions.  Upon the closing, Tencent and JD.com will beneficially own, taking into account any existing holding, approximately 7% and 5.5%, respectively, of Vipshop’s total issued shares. The Class A ordinary shares issued to Tencent and JD.com will be subject to a two-year lock up restriction. Tencent and JD.com will have the right to appoint a director and an observer, respectively, to Vipshop’s board of directors during the two-year lockup period. After the end of the lock-up period, for so long as Tencent and JD.com hold approximately 12% and 8%, respectively, of Vipshop’s total issued shares, or otherwise by mutual agreement with Vipshop, they will maintain director and board observer rights.

Concurrently with the entry of the share subscription agreement, Tencent and JD.com have entered into business cooperation agreements with Vipshop, effective upon closing, establishing a cooperative relationship among Tencent, JD.com and Vipshop. Under these agreements, Tencent will grant Vipshop an entry on the interface of Weixin Wallet enabling Vipshop to utilize traffic from Tencent’s Weixin platform, and JD.com will grant Vipshop entries on both the main page of JD.com’s mobile application and the main page of its Weixin Discovery shopping entry, and will assist Vipshop in achieving certain GMV targets through JD.com’s platform.   

“I am truly delighted about Vipshop's new strategic cooperation relationships with Tencent and JD.com,” said Mr. Eric Ya Shen, Vipshop’s Co-founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer. “This undoubtedly is an important event for Vipshop as well as China's e-commerce and internet industries. We, together with Tencent and JD.com, will leverage our respective strengths to form a strategic cooperative alliance aiming to achieve a deep, win-win cooperation and to benefit internet users and consumers. We will develop a holistic cooperation with Tencent on the Weixin platform and expand our strategic alliance with Tencent into more and broader areas.  We will explore win-win opportunities in multiple areas with JD.com, including establishing a strategic alliance in collaboration with brand suppliers, and an on-line traffic alliance. We will continue to operate as an independent e-commerce platform and further deepen and enhance our leading e-commerce capabilities in fashion (including apparel, shoes, bags and accessories) and cosmetics categories as well as our strong female user base, thereby offering higher value and better user experience to our customers.”

“The strength of Vipshop’s flash sale and apparel businesses, as well as its outstanding management team, create clear and strong synergies with us,” said Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO of JD.com. “This partnership will further extend the strong inroads that we have made with female shoppers, and will expand the breadth and reach of our fashion business. We continue to add the top-notch partners to complement JD.com’s core strengths, ensuring that JD and our partners provide the best customer experience for every shopping need.”

Martin Lau, President of Tencent Holdings, said, “We are pleased to become strategic investor in and partner with Vipshop. We look forward to providing Vipshop with our audiences, marketing solutions, and payment support to help the company provide branded apparel and other product categories to China’s rising middle class. We already see substantial demand from our users to discover, discuss and purchase branded apparel in our applications, and we believe that connecting our users more deeply to products on Vipshop’s platform will enrich their online experiences while benefiting Vipshop. We are proud of the role our resources such as marketing technology, payments handling, and machine learning play in facilitating a healthy and diverse retail ecosystem, online and offline.” 

About JD.com, Inc.

JD.com is both the largest e-commerce company in China, and the largest Chinese retailer, by revenue. The company strives to offer consumers the best online shopping experience. Through its user-friendly website, native mobile apps, and WeChat and Mobile QQ entry points, JD offers consumers a superior shopping experience. The company has the largest fulfillment infrastructure of any e-commerce company in China. As of September 30, 2017, JD.com operated 7 fulfillment centers and 405 warehouses covering 2,830 counties and districts across China, staffed by its own employees. JD.com is a member of the NASDAQ100 and a Fortune Global 500 company.

About Vipshop Holdings Limited

Vipshop Holdings Limited is a leading online discount retailer for brands in China. Vipshop offers high quality and popular branded products to consumers throughout China at a significant discount to retail prices. Since it was founded in August 2008, the Company has rapidly built a sizeable and growing base of customers and brand partners. For more information, please visit www.vip.com.

About Tencent Holdings Limited

Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users. Our social products Weixin and QQ link our users to a rich digital content catalogue including games, video, music and books. Our proprietary targeting technology helps advertisers reach out to hundreds of millions of consumers in China. Our infrastructure services including payment, security, cloud and artificial intelligence create differentiated offerings and support our partners’ business growth. Tencent invests heavily in people and innovation, enabling us to evolve with the Internet. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1998. Shares of Tencent (00700.hk) are traded on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “confident” and similar statements. Among other things, statements regarding the expected closing of the transactions and the quotations from management in this announcement are or contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to, those included in JD.com’s and Vipshop’s filings with the SEC and in Tencent’s filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and none of Tencent, JD.com or Vipshop undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.

Berlin / Frankfurt am Main, 2 November 2017 – Ms. Regina Brückner, Managing Associate of Brückner Trockentechnik, is the new chairperson of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association. The businesswoman from Leonberg was elected at the members’ meeting of the Association in Berlin. The new executive board is completed with Ms. Verena Thies, Thies Textilmaschinen, and Mr. Fritz P. Mayer, Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik, who were elected as vice chairpersons.

After her election, Regina Brückner stated: „I am pleased to have Ms. Thies and Mr. Mayer by my side, the two chairpersons who complement each other very well. Mr. Mayer is an entrepreneurial personality with decades of experience which he is meanwhile bringing in as the president of CEMATEX, the European Committee of Textile Machinery Manufacturers.  Ms. Thies assumed responsibility in the family company early on and has been working for the traditional company Thies in international textile machinery business since 2009.”

The new executive board for the legislative period until 2021 is composed of:
Regina Brückner (Chairperson), Brückner Trockentechnik
Verena Thies (Vice Chairperson), Thies
Fritz P. Mayer (Vice Chairman), Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik
Johann Phillip Dilo, Oskar Dilo Maschinenfabrik
Peter D. Dornier, Lindauer Dornier
Arno Gärtner, Karl Mayer Textilmaschinenfabrik
Roland Hampel, A. Monforts Textilmaschinen
Dr. Janpeter Horn, Herzog
Markus Kleindorp, Memminger-Iro
Martin Küppers, Saurer Schlafhorst
Georg Stausberg, Oerlikon Textile
Andreas Lukas, Andritz Küsters
Benjamin Mayer, Mayer & Cie.     
Eric Schöller, Groz-Beckert
Heinrich Trützschler, Trützschler

Bobingen - On the 4th October 2017 a new brand was introduced at Trevira: Trevira SINFINECO®. This label may be carried by all textiles that contain sustainable Trevira products. Sustainable, innovative, high-value and responsible – these are the values the new brand stands for.

As an industrial enterprise, Trevira is conscious of its special responsibility for an intact environment and has long advocated the recycling of valuable raw materials and waste products. Trevira CEO Klaus Holz: “We at Trevira wish to preserve the environment and at the same time work to create value. These are the criteria of our sustainability concept.“

Creation of the new brand is therefore only a logical step, one that enables customers to label their sustainable Trevira products as such. Trevira is known for the high quality of its products. In every way recycled products are as good as the original materials in terms of quality and performance.

Two vital elements in Pre-Consumer Recycling and an important concept in Post-Consumer Recycling form part of the sustainability strategy of Trevira to conserve resources and maintain value. :

In the area of Pre-Consumer Recycling, on the one hand, residual materials resulting from the manufacture of polyester fibres and filaments in Bobingen and Guben, dependent on the manufacturing step, are processed in the agglomeration plant and restored to become serviceable primary material. The recyclates are then fed back to our fibre and filament spinning mills, to be made into new top-quality products.

On the other hand, in fibre production there occurs in the manufacture of tow a small proportion of tow that cannot be used for converting and has to be cut out. Instead of selling this material as waste, it is cut up, pressed into balls and then carded / combed by a partner, resulting in a 1A quality product. The GRS certification (Global Recycled Standard) is requested for this. As with converter tow from new material, the recycled tow is mostly incorporated into polyester wool blends (55 % PET / 45 % wool), which are used primarily in corporate wear and uniforms.

In the area of Post-Consumer Recycling, Trevira offers filament yarns consisting of 100 % recycled PET bottles. Our parent company Indorama manufactures very high quality recycled chips from PET bottles. Since only transparent PET bottles are used in Thailand, the flakes and chips are of a particularly good and very uniform quality. The recycled chips, fibres and filaments from Indorama bear the GRS certificates (Global Recycled Standard) and RCS-NL (Recycled Claim Standard). Trevira processes the regranulate made by Indorama from bottle flakes into filament yarns consisting 100 % of recycled material. The filament yarns are available in titres 167 and 76 dtex normal polyester. Alongside technical applications, they are used in the automotive and apparel sectors. In addition, many promising developments with the recycled material are on their way.

In partnership with IPSOS, GINETEX presents the outcomes of its European barometer: "Europeans and textile care labeling" 70% of Europeans follow the textile care instructions featured on the labels and 80% admit that they would not (or would rarely) buy clothes without any labels, While another 84% feel concerned by water and energy savings . GINETEX, the international Association for Textile Care Labeling, called upon the French market research company IPSOS, to evaluate the behavior of European Consumers with regards to textile product labels and care symbols. This study, carried out in December 2016, combines the results of six different countries, gathered from a sample of 6,000 people in Germany, England, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and Sweden.
This IPSOS study reveals that 70% of Europeans follow the textile care instructions represented by the symbols. At a pan-European level, 57% even admit that they follow them 'often' and 13% do so 'always'. These figures illustrate the importance of care instructions in the minds of European consumers.
- 38% state that they follow these instructions in order to avoid washing problems such as shrinking, in the first place
- 31% follow them in order to preserve their clothes and keep them longer, as a second reason Overall, Europeans consider labels as too cumbersome and 62% admit cutting them out: for 74% of them, the labels itch and irritate their skin and for another 55%, they are often too long and uncomfortable. These results can differ from one European country to another.
However, the presence of the label is a real purchasing criterion since 80% of Europeans state that they would never or rarely buy a piece of clothing without a label.

Montalvo, international specialists in web tension control, is celebrating its 70th Anniversary. Since 1947 Montalvo has had one goal: provide Better Web Control; through their products, service, and support. 2017 marks the 70th anniversary of Montalvo. Founded in 1947 by Edwin J. Montalvo Sr., Montalvo carries on the core principle it was built on: build a product right the first time and back it up with the highest quality service and support. From the invention of the dual disc multiple range air brake and clutch for use in continuous unwinding and winding applications to the latest in advanced tension control technology, Montalvo has continuously brought the newest innovations to the industry for 70 years and proudly maintains this tradition. Managing Director Edwin Montalvo says, “Customers know when they work with Montalvo that they are working with some of the industry’s most talented, most knowledgeable, and most experienced individuals. The respect Montalvo has earned within industry and with its customers continues to drive the company to deliver the finest tension control products, services, and solutions which ensure our customers maximize the performance and capabilities of their applications for years to come.”