From the Sector

• There is an urban legend that hemp canvas was used to make the very first pair of Levi’s jeans.
• While this is a myth that originated in the counterculture of the 1960s, hemp is without doubt the fibre of the moment for the denim industry.

At the second Kingpins24 virtual denim show that was broadcast from New York on June 23rd and 24th, the sustainable benefits of hemp fibre were referenced by many Monforts customers who are now including it in their collections, including AGI Denim, Artistic Milliners, Black Peony, Calik, Cone Denim, Naveena Denim Mills (NDM) and Orta.

“Hemp is an easy to grow fibre which requires no irrigation, no fertilizers, no herbicides and no chemicals,” says Allan Little, Director of Product Development for Cone Denim, which has recently launched its Sweet Leaf collection featuring the fibre. “Significantly, it also uses fifty per cent or even less water than cotton in cultivation.”

It can also bring some new aesthetics to denim too, he adds.

“Hemp has a unique colour and adds a different cast to our indigo, the drape and texture of the fabrics is different and it even adds  a bit of a unique hand, so combined with its sustainable credentials we are proud to be bringing the Sweet Leaf collection to the market.”

US supply chain

Cone is currently sourcing its hemp from France, but with much of its manufacturing now in Mexico – and with the introduction of the US Farm Bill in 2018 which has legalised the growing of legal hemp – is exploring the possibility of investing in the US supply chain.

“With US hemp we’re really at the R&D phase,” Little emphasises. “It’s a unique crop, so coming up with the right stalk to provide the right fibre is challenging. We’ve experimented with different types of seed and various methods of decortication.”

Decortication, he explains, is the mechanical removal of the outside layer of the hemp stalk to useable fibre on the inside. A second process, cottonization, is necessary to make the fibre suitable for spinning, because compared to cotton, hemp is longer, stiffer, and less flexible.

100% success

At the end of 2019, Naveena (NDM), headquartered in Karachi, introduced fabrics featuring up to 51% hemp content in blends with Tencel and recycled polyester and this year has developed the first 100% hemp denims.

“The response to the fabrics we showed last year was incredible and we were looking forward to the response to this latest development – which everyone was asking for – at the Kingpins show in Amsterdam, which unfortunately was unable to go ahead,” says NDM’s Director of Marketing Rashid Iqbal. “We produced initial samples in an undyed state because we were not sure how the wet spun yarn would react in the dyeing, but I’m happy to say we have had success in this respect and are now able to provide one hundred per cent indigo dyed hemp denim.”

Environmental benefits

“Differentiation is the key in the highly-competitive denim industry and we have assisted our customers with trials and optimised processing parameters for a range of different fibres, including hemp, both at our Advanced Technology Centre in Germany and at their own mills around the world,” says Hans Wroblowski, Monforts Head of Denim. “Given the environmental benefits of hemp, and the liberalisation of its cultivation in many parts of the world, the interest in it now comes as no surprise. We have the technologies and know-how to help our customers to fully maximise their hemp denims at all post-weaving stages of production.”

Monforts has a dominant position in the field of denim finishing with its well proven Montex stenters. It has been enjoying further recent success with its Eco Line concept based on two key technology advances – the Eco Applicator and the Thermo Stretch.

The latest Monforts innovation for denim is the CYD yarn dyeing system. This technology is based on the effective and established dyeing process for denim fabrics that is now being applied for yarn dyeing.

The CYD system also integrates new functions and processes into the weaving preparation processes – spinning, direct beaming, warping and assembly beaming, followed by sizing and dyeing – to increase quality, flexibility, economic viability and productivity. A full CYD line is now available for trials at the company’s Advanced Technology Centre.

DyStar, a leading specialty chemical company with a heritage of more than a century in product development and innovation has resigned from Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic Pigments Manufacturers (ETAD) and joined TEGEWA as a member since January 2020.

Despite being one of the major sponsors and supporters of ETAD for many years, DyStar had to make this decision in response to the new industry challenges. The executive decision to leave ETAD and join TEGEWA was made after careful considerations on current global business needs, market demands and customers’ requirements. In conclusion, DyStar decided to work with an organization that can better represent and effectively support the Chemical Industry in a fast and challenging environment, and at the same time, provide essential support to the Textile Chemical Producers, the Brands and Retailers, among other stakeholders in the worldwide supply chain.

TEGEWA, being a sector association within the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), is also actively involved in the work of VCI. The association has over 100 members and represents manufacturers of chemical substances and mixtures, such as surfactants, textile, paper and leather auxiliaries, colorants, cosmetic raw materials, antimicrobial agents, polymeric flocculants and allied products.

TEGEWA has also deeply engaged with DyStar and its partners of GCIRT on many meaningful discussions for the industry, such as communications with the ZDHC Organisation.

Fanny Vermandel, Vice President, Global Marketing Coloration at DyStar said, “At DyStar, we are customer-focused. We find TEGEWA a good fit and appreciate their diverse network. Most importantly, we are delighted to learn that TEGEWA works with many organizations such as IVTG and t+m, Brands and Retailers and other stakeholders in the worldwide supply chain.”

• Bangladesh’s biggest denim expo takes place 5-6 November
• The show runs concurrently with the Sustainable Apparel Forum Bangladesh
• From 4-6 November, Bangladesh becomes the perfect meeting point for stakeholders in the global apparel industry

DHAKA - Responsibility is the theme of the 11th Bangladesh Denim Expo which takes place on 5th and 6th November at International Convention City in Bashundhara, Dhaka. The event, now firmly established as one of the world’s leading denim trade shows, runs alongside the Bangladesh Sustainable Apparel Forum.

Bangladesh Denim Expo

Around 100 exhibitors from 11 countries, including host Bangladesh, will participate in this year’s denim expo. Other participating countries are china, Japan, Italy, India, Singapore, Brazil, Spain, Pakistan, Turkey and Germany.

H&M Group is collaborating with Bangladesh Denim Expo for the forthcoming 11th edition of the event and a number of guest speakers will be present from the company, including Pierre Borjesson, head of sustainability, global production. Other guest speakers include Andrew Olah, the founder of Kingpins Denim show, Alice Tonello, R&D director with the Tonello Group, world renowned denim designer, Piero Turk and Jordi Juani, Asia regional director with Jeanologia.

Through a series of product displays, presentations, seminar sessions & panel discussions, the Expo will encourage healthy debate and interaction among exhibitors and visitors to champion a more responsible denim industry. One of these, of course, is sustainability and within this sits the issue of responsibility – an overriding theme of this year’s event. Denim manufacture faces huge challenges with regards its social and environmental responsibility, with production techniques having potentially far-reaching ramifications for the environment as well as people involved in the production process.

However, the industry and its supply chain are making impressive progress on these issues with Bangladesh – now the world’s largest producer of denim – leading the way in terms of addressing some of the sustainability challenges relating to denim production, including excessive use of water and chemicals. Mostafiz Uddin is the organiser of Bangladesh Denim Expo. Uddin has watched with interest the evolution of the denim industry, with each Expo marking continued and gradual progress being made by the more progressive players in the industry.

Uddin says: “The way that business and product development is conducted can have far reaching consequences on the environment, on the people that make the product and the product’s end use & life-span. “It is the duty of all stakeholders in the apparel industry to acknowledge this responsibility and to analyse our business practices, for the benefit of all.” Emphasising the theme of responsibility within Denim Expo is the fact that revenues from the expo support the running and presentation of the Sustainable Apparel Forum.

Sustainable Apparel Forum

The Sustainable Apparel Forum (SAF) is the biggest annual sustainable apparel event in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE) along with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) as co-organiser will jointly carry out the 2nd edition of the SAF on 5th Nov 2019.

This is the second edition of the Sustainable Apparel Forum, with the first-ever forum held in 2017 in Dhaka. The objective of this year’s forum is accelerating the momentum of sustainability in Bangladesh apparel industry.

The forum will see more than 50 speakers gathered from Bangladesh and overseas sharing expert opinions across five panel discussions covering current issues in the country’s apparel industry. These include human resources, transparency in business, water conservation, purchasing practices, sustainable chemical management, waste management, circular economy in textiles and climate change to name a few.

Additionally, the conference will host several knowledge building technical presentations from renowned organisations which will cover different issues relating to sustainability, including waste management, protection of the environment and better working conditions.

Speakers at the show include Md. Shahriar Alam, MP, Honourable State Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh, H. E. Benoit Préfonatine High Commissioner, High Commission of Canada, Bangladesh, and Dr. Rubana Huq President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association, Sheikh Fazle Fahim, President, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Pierre Börjesson, Head of Sustainability – Global Production, H&M Group, Tuomo Poutiainen, Country Director, International Labor Organization, Peter McCallister, Executive Director, Ethical Trading Initiative and H.E. Winnie Estrup Petersen Ambassador, Embassy of Denmark, Bangladesh.

Prior to this year’s conference, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh and the Sweden Embassy in Bangladesh will also co-host two roundtable discussion in collaboration with BAE and in association with BGMEA on 4 November, 2019, while H&M, Better Work Bangladesh and C&A Foundation are partners in the event.
The conference will be followed by showcasing different innovative, sustainable & best work practices in RMG manufacturing factories in Bangladesh. Following the discussions, a series of recommendations will be made, and a Sustainability Roadmap for the Bangladesh apparel industry will be formulated.

This year’s SAF promises to be the biggest yet. Added by Mr Mostafiz Uddin in the recent press briefing for the event: “The title for this year’s Sustainable Apparel Forum is enabling sustainability through policy and leadership. The time for talking on sustainability issues is over. It is now time for actions. That’s why the focus of this year’s show is on practical, pragmatic actions the textile industry can adopt to improve its environmental footprint.”

• Operations, Product Development, Sales and Technical Support Growth

Celine Huang 黄秀蔚 is named Chief Executive Officer for HeiQ Greater China and Ming Wen Liang 梁銘文is named Chief Executive Officer HeiQ Taiwan. Huang, with her background as a general manager of a large player in the same industry brings a total of over 20 years of solid testing lab, agent and country strategies management expertise with an excellent relationship skills with customers, distributors, dealers and end users. She has a chemical engineering degree in dyeing and finishing from China Textile University. Huang has worked in both Australia and China in senior management positions. Huang will lead the group’s Greater China business from the newly created Shanghai office (瑞士海屹科新材料有限公司上海办事处).

Liang will manage mill relations, technical support and distribution at HeiQ Taiwan. She brings close to 20 years of experience in textile and garment production supply chain focusing on sales, material innovation and development, sourcing and production. Liang holds a Bachelor of International Trade from the National Taipei University of Business, Taiwan, speaks Chinese, English and Spanish and has lived in both Taiwan and Argentina. And will be based in the new office in Taipei (瑞士海屹科有限公司).

HeiQ continues to increase its global footprint with the creation of HeiQ Shanghai and HeiQ Taiwan. In addition to HeiQ Hong Kong, these offices aim to provide dedicated technical support in the Greater China area, further broaden its geographical reach in strategic locations and support HeiQ’s brand partners’ manufacturing activities in the region.

At the Texprocess trade fair in Frankfurt/Main, Germany (May 14th to 17th 2019) VEIT Group will present on more than 400 m² the latest highlights in the areas of ironing, finishing, pressing and fusing in the garment industry as well as automotive and interior sectors.

"Pressing for Excellence" is the corporate slogan of the VEIT Group. In addition, this year's motto at Texprocess is "LOVEIT" which is a wordplay on "love it" or “love VEIT”. In the words of VEIT Group President Günter Veit: “Our motto stands for the passion that we have for the engineering of our products, our love of perfection and our devotion to our customers. This is the basis of their trust in our products. We want to offer our customers value not only now, but also for the future which we believe will be more digital and more sustainable. Both Industry 4.0 readiness, as well as the good of operator and environment are essential components of our product development efforts.”

Among the large portfolio of high-performance technology presented at the trade show, there is a significantly improved shirt finisher SF 26. With the new model SF 26, VEIT manages to further increase both the functionality and the ergonomics of the shirt finisher. For the customer, this optimisation in application technology is reflected in higher quality of the finished product and simplified operation.

Combined with the improved FS shirt folding table series – a highly successful product – VEIT offers true streamlining potential while maintaining high quality levels when folding shirts, blouses and polos in 3 versions.

Reacting to the customers’ demands, VEIT has equipped their popular BX fusing machines – BXT, the universal solution for shirts and outerwear – with a separate feeding belt and a 7” colour operating panel. These changes make the BX fully industry 4.0 ready and helps to further improve the ergonomics and energy efficiency.

In order to increase flexibility in the shaping of textiles, VEIT will present a new solution for high-quality finishing of the elbow seam in the area of BRISAY machines – the BRI 860 VC sleeve seam finish pressing machine. The 8430 universal multiform finisher was enhanced to cover an even wider range of applications. It can now also be used for finishing, among other items, also polos, T-shirts, blouses, blousons and jackets.

In addition to the innovative machine highlights, VEIT has also developed special solutions for customers' investment decisions. "More and more companies that are making investments are not only looking at the purchase price, but rather at the total lifetime cost of ownership," explains Vice President Christopher Veit. VEIT is presenting two interesting offers to meet this trend:
Customers may choose to buy a machine according to the “Pay Per Piece” system, which means that they pay for how much the machine is used, instead of a full up-front investment. This reduces the investment risk and allows more flexible reactions to especially to scalable business opportunities. Alternatively, when purchasing a machine the traditional way, customers can limit operating costs, extend the machine’s lifespan and achieve improved machine availability by signing a service contract. With its global service and partnership network, VEIT Group can offer this service worldwide.

• Lectra provides fashion companies with breakthrough solution that enables them to personalize at ready-to-wear production speed

Paris – Lectra launches its ‘Fashion On Demand’ offer, empowering industry players to uncover new business opportunities brought about by the strong demand for personalization in the fashion industry. Lectra is enabling its customers to produce on demand for the first time ever with an end-to-end offer that automates the entire personalization process from product development to final cutting stages. ‘Fashion On Demand by Lectra’, based on Industry 4.0 principles, is a fruition of four years of R&D with a hundred-strong team of experts, as part of Lectra’s strategic roadmap announced in 2017. There will be a progressive global rollout starting from January 2019.

The digital revolution has prompted consumers to demand personalized products and experiences nowadays. This is an advantageous business model for fashion companies, as it allows them to accurately match supply with demand, and solve a host of problems that regular business models usually face. By simply knowing ahead of time what and how much their consumers want, companies can produce in precise quantities and avoid overstocking and markdowns. In addition, as consumers pay upfront for their orders it improves cash flow for businesses. Fashion companies can use personalization as a way to outshine their competitors and earn consumer loyalty, by offering one-of-a-kind products that make their customers feel exclusive.

While on-demand production is an attractive business model that presents little financial risk, today, fashion companies are encountering huge barriers to entry for this market. Without the savoir-faire and appropriate technology, many companies have to rely on their standard supply-chain infrastructure that lacks the flexibility to create and produce these products. As a result, they have to develop independent workflows for each product, incurring additional production costs, prolonging lead times and even jeopardizing their existing production lines. By having longer delivery times, they face the risk of upsetting their loyal customers who have paid premium prices for their personalized products.

‘Fashion On Demand by Lectra’, is a game changer for the industry. Drawing from 45 years’ experience of working with international retailers, manufacturers and brands, Lectra developed this offer to break down these barriers and empower fashion companies to meet the specific needs of their digitally savvy clientele with best-in-class solutions. ‘Fashion On Demand by Lectra’, available in the form of two packages, one dedicated to made to measure, and the other to customization, is a turnkey solution that automates on-demand production right from order reception to production development stages and the cutting room. Companies can define the product customization criteria and range for each item depending on the package (such as altering product characteristics for customization and pattern adjustments for made to measure) and launch production processes right from the get-go, without interfering with their standard workflows.

Empowering customers through industrial intelligence 2/2

“Personalization, or rather, on-demand production, is going to be an industry-wide phenomenon. It is hence Lectra’s duty, as an Industry 4.0 pioneer, to think ahead of time, and spearhead this movement. Keeping our customers’ best interests in mind, we’ve worked with renowned personalization specialists from different countries to develop this solution. With ‘Fashion On Demand by Lectra’ we’re doing the unthinkable. For the first time in the fashion industry, there will be a comprehensive personalization solution that will be able to perform under the same market conditions as the ready-to-wear segment and produce the same, if not better, results,” says Daniel Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lectra.

This disruptive offer gives fashion companies a 360°-view of the entire personalization process, providing them with the visibility to streamline multiple production processes and manage complex individual demands from custom order to cut piece. Thanks to the supply-chain flexibility that companies gain with this innovative Lectra solution, they will be able to expand their product range and offer more variety, be it womenswear, menswear or childrenswear, and appeal to a broader audience and jump on trends without interrupting their existing production processes. They will not have to waste time on consolidating and communicating information from one production stage to another. This ensures smooth process flows and hence, quick delivery times that can compete with those of standard products.

A new important partnership marks the path of Itema towards a greener future for the whole denim production chain. Prosperity Textile, one of the main denim producers worldwide, has chosen for its new facility one of the most interesting and sustainable-oriented Itema technologies, iSAVER™ equipped on the Itema R95002denim. Prosperity Textiles is, in fact, one of the early adopters of this new technology chosen for the new plant that the world-famous indigo fabrics producer will open in Vietnam, and that will be exclusively equipped with the latest Itema weaving machine model, demonstrating once again its green, future-oriented approach.

Thanks to its partnership with Itema, Prosperity Textiles makes again a step forward in terms of sustainable innovation, as one of the first denim producers able to successfully turn - even the weaving production - green. A partnership that is planned to be showcased in some of the most important textiles exhibitions worldwide focusing on Asian and denim markets. A path that starts with KingpinsShow, Amsterdam (October 24-25) where the Chinese denim producer will put into the spotlight this brand-new solution aimed at further increasing the eco-driven approach of the company; an important appointment is also in the Itema calendar: the ITMA Asia + CITME 2018 exhibition, Shanghai (October 15-19) where the Italian company showcased the important green step-forward in denim weaving processes and the full range of its innovations.

iSAVER™: the ideal green tool for denim weaving
This new technology, developed by ItemaLab™, the Itema Advanced Innovation Department, isable to completely eliminate the left-hand weft waste, allowing to insert the weft yarns in the fabric without the need of additional yarns. iSAVER™ significantly reduces raw material waste, leading to tangible benefits in terms of machine’s efficiency, cost reduction and energy saving.

Just consider that the weaver will gain a minimum saving of € 2.000 per year per machine, and our planet will gain even more. In fact, for the first time in the weaving industry, a sustainable approach when choosing the weaving equipment is now possible. Thanks to iSAVER™, 1.000 Kg of cotton per machine per year – the 3% of the total raw materials - will be saved, thus avoiding the waste of 20 million liters of water, equivalent to 400.000 showers.

Numbers are clear: the introduction of iSAVER™ clearly sets a new benchmark in terms of sustainability within denim fabric production. Furthermore, the iSAVER™ is one of the key features of the Itema R95002denim, the rapier weaving machine born and designed to weave denim guaranteeing to weavers superior textile quality, outstanding user-friendliness and tangible energy and raw materials saving.

A joint eco-driven path
Itema, understanding very well the importance of saving resources and energy to drive the textile production in the direction of a more conscious manufacturing, focused its attention to develop breakthrough weaving solutions and in 2018 introduced to the market the iSAVER™, a revolutionary device dedicated specifically to denim fabrics able to eliminate the waste selvedge on the left-hand side of the fabric.

This is one of the reasons-why Prosperity Textiles has chosen to adopt this extraordinary technology for its new facility. Today Prosperity Textiles is one of the main denim producers worldwide, counting 1,300 employees and 20 offices worldwide. Moreover, a second state-of-theart denim mill will be inaugurated in Vietnam by the end of 2018.
What makes Prosperity able to stand out on a global scale, is not simply its products high quality but the ability to conciliate flawless denim fabric production with a sustainability-oriented mindset that permeates every stage of their textile supply chain.

Prosperity, indeed, adopted innovative green manufacturing concepts through all stages of the company’s operations, from product development, raw materials procurement and processing, to natural resources and energy utilization including waste management. Prosperity’s denim production is based on the employment of best quality yarns available on the market, while still targeting the most sustainable sources, from BCI to organic, recycled cotton, and from Tencel™ Lyocell to Sustans™, in 2017, more than 20 million yards fabric sales from Prosperity are with sustainable fibers inside.
The introduction of eco-friendly dyeing and finishing practices allows the company to create beautiful indigo shades and performance denims, with less water and energy consumption compared to the traditional systems. Last year, Prosperity produced 20% more fabrics than 2016, yet the water and electricity use and greenhouse gas emission was down by 11.5%, 7.9% and 5.4% respectively.

In this continuous process of improvement and contribution to a greener industry and planet, plays a central role the recent renewal of the historic partnership and strategic alliance with Itema – the leading manufacturer of cutting-edge weaving solutions – which represents the natural evolution of a constant process of research for partners able to support Prosperity Textiles’ growth as a sustainable company.
Up to now, all innovations and efforts done in this regard addressed the traditionally more polluting steps of the denim production. In fact, if the development of green technologies is nowadays spread in many fabric processing stages, such as finishing and dyeing, weaving was not yet capable to provide sustainable solutions to weavers.

• Product development and production teams are on cloud nine, thanks to Lectra’s all-new Quick Estimate and Quick Nest apps

Paris – Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather releases its first of a series of cloud-based applications conceptualized for product development and production teams. Quick Estimate and Quick Nest will be launched in France and Italy and will then become available progressively in other countries.

As part of Lectra’s Industry 4.0 strategy, Lectra collaborated with its leading, digitally-attuned customers to develop apps that empower decision-makers to respond in an instant. Quick Estimate revs up product development efficiency and is instrumental to managing costs. Quick Nest provides easy access to automatic marker making and capitalizes on cloud technology to handle heavy volumes of calculations in parallel, maximizing productivity and marker efficiency.

Leveraging the industrial Internet of Things, lean development principles and cloud-based computing, Lectra aims to provide anytime, anywhere access to business enhancing applications. Gone are the days of limited storage space and slow calculation speed. These well-packaged, light cloud applications will redefine the way fashion customers store and process data.

Fabric often accounts for as much as 60% to 70% of the cost of a garment. Quick Estimate allows product development teams to calculate fabric requirements instantly from their Modaris®—Lectra’s 2D/3D patternmaking and grading solution—working environment with direct access to the cloud applications. Pattern developers now have the flexibility to make pattern adjustments more quickly to optimize costs, while protecting the brand’s quality and assuring speed-to-market.

Quick Nest can be accessed through Diamino®, Lectra’s marker-making solution. During the production development stages, Quick Nest users will be able to process more detailed markers faster. Quick Nest can also be used by production teams to treat lists of markers automatically in record time via the cloud.

These apps will also ensure enterprise-wide transparency as management teams gain full visibility of consumption needs for all products in development and production, thanks to viewable access of consolidated data for approval and reporting purposes.

“The end-goal of our new strategy is clear: we want to put our customers at the core of our business. We want them to thrive in this new digital era. Our latest Industry 4.0-friendly apps will serve as growth catalysts for their businesses by enabling them to make sound decisions based on real-time information,” explains Daniel Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lectra. “And this is just the beginning. More innovative apps are yet to come.”

• Connect people, data and processes with Lectra’s latest solutions to power up design and development teams

Paris – Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather, introduces collaborative solutions specifically developed for design and product development teams, enabling fashion companies to affront tighter deadlines and handle wider product mixes with speed and serenity.

With the rise of e-commerce, digitally dependent consumers expect personalized, innovative fashion delivered to their doorstep at the click of a mouse.

Fashion companies are struggling to keep up with consumer demands and looking for new ways to speed up design and development without compromising quality. Design teams work faster than ever to deliver fresh, eye-catching collections. Product development teams rush to transform new designs into consumer-ready products. Given the accelerated pace of the fashion marketplace, information sharing has become vital for these teams.

Lectra has developed two new solutions to fulfill the specific needs of these teams, Lectra Connected Design and Lectra Connected Development. These solutions deliver collaborative environments that integrate business applications to aggregate, standardize and store data from all design and product development stages. These innovative solutions make every-day working life less stressful by allowing criteria-based searches, inciting users to capitalize on data links, and providing them with innovative tools and services to speed up their processes.

Lectra Connected Design facilitates collaboration between textile and fashion designers, colorists, graphic designers, technical designers and their managers by providing design teams with a connected environment. Team members can access the platform via their Lectra Kaledo® design software and Adobe® Creative Cloud, share inspiration and review collections together or upload inspirations via dedicated mobile apps. This solution gives users the visibility needed to streamline, automate and monitor the entire design process to ensure that they remain creative under severe time constraints.

In the same way, Lectra Connected Development connects patternmakers, graders, technical design teams, managers, cost and margin specialists, marker makers and sample teams through data. It allows team members to connect through Lectra Modaris® 2D and 3D patternmaking software and Lectra Diamino® Fashion marker-making software. Thanks to the wide range of standard libraries and mobile applications provided, teams will improve the efficiency of technical specifications creation. The automation of business processes and real-time communication allow product development teams to avoid errors and deliver the right product quality and fit.

“We recognize first and foremost that today’s fashion industry professionals need to feel well-equipped and at ease in order to perform well under tight deadlines,” explains Céline Choussy Bedouet, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Lectra. “We are confident that by introducing a new and easy way of collaborating through sound data management, both offers will help design and product development teams work faster and more easily to build quality into the products they design and develop. That way, they can reach their fullest potential as key contributors to their companies’ success.”

By combining the Lectra and Kubix Lab offers, Lectra will equip fashion customers with a revolutionary platform for managing product information.

Lectra, the technological partner for companies using fabrics and leather, announces the signing of a share purchase agreement to acquire the entire capital and voting rights of the Italian company Kubix Lab.

Founded at the end of 2015, Kubix Lab has developed a cutting-edge technological offer called Link. This offer enables fashion brands to manage, from end-to-end, all product information deriving notably from multiple IT systems (ERP, PDM, PLM…), within one single application. Users can modify, enrich or add new data, while maintaining data synchronization with all IT systems. In just a few months, Link has convinced over ten high-end Italian brands of its value.

“We were particularly impressed by the relevance of the solution created by Kubix Lab,” underlines Daniel Harari, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Lectra. “By capitalizing on their knowledge of best practice, the founders of Kubix Lab knew how to develop an offer perfectly adapted to the expectations of fashion companies. Link enables all players involved in product development, manufacturing and sales to collaborate in real time, in a simple and efficient way, around exactly the same data.”

“We are delighted to join Lectra. We are convinced its leadership, global presence, strong expertise in the fashion industry and the richness of its product portfolio will enable us to develop an integrated offer with high value for all Lectra customers,” states Giampaolo Urbani, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Kubix Lab.

The founders of Kubix Lab will be in charge of developing an integrated Lectra – Link offer, which will complement - and reinforce - Lectra’s entire offer.

“Product data is at the heart of Link. We took an approach diametrically opposed to existing solutions on the market and designed an offer which is highly innovative, flexible, evolutionary and easy to use,” explains Pierluigi Beato, R&D director and co-founder of Kubix Lab. “With Lectra, we will take Link to the next level.”

The transaction involves the entire acquisition of Kubix Lab for the maximum amount of €7 million: €3 million paid when the acquisition agreement is signed; €1.3 million and €2.7 million paid respectively in 18 and 36 months’ time, providing objectives are met.

Final completion of the acquisition should take place by January 31, 2018.

These amounts will come from Lectra’s available cash, with no financing from the bank. Kubix Lab will be consolidated into Lectra’s accounts, effective from the signature of the final agreement.