From the Sector

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals, has partnered with the popular color inspiration site Design Seeds, on a series of seasonal stories featuring colors found in the Color Atlas by Archroma®. Design Seeds founder Jessica Colaluca and the site have more than 1,250,000 followers combined across social media platforms, and Design Seeds itself gets around 300,000 viewers every month.

“Archroma Color Management and Design Seeds is a match made in heaven,” said Colaluca. “I had declined partnering with brands or incorporating sponsored content on the site for over seven years until I met the incredible folks at Archroma. Beyond our obvious shared passion for color, we share a dedication to empowering designers. And as a designer, I fell in love with the Color Atlas. It is a brilliant system overflowing with modern color.”

Through the site, Colaluca provides daily color stories, utilizing dynamic, thought-provoking images. In a new Design Seeds feature sponsored by Archroma she creates ‘seasonal atlas’ which offers storied vignettes of creative color and inspiration. Color Atlas by Archroma® codes are provided for all colors in the inspiration resource. The ‘seasonal atlas’ is catalogued on the Design Seeds site, distributed at trade shows and is available for download.

“It’s critical to designers working in today’s global fashion industry to select color that is achievable from the very start of a project,” says Chris Hipps, Global Director, Archroma Color Management. “Here at Archroma, our suite of color tools, from the Color Atlas to our online Color Search tool to our industry-renowned Engineered Color Standards, are all designed to help designers capture their inspiration, and ensure that their color choices remain consistent across global production processes.”

“We brainstormed on how to enhance what we can offer creatives through our partnership and that is when the concept of the ‘seasonal atlas’ was born. Through Archroma’s sponsorship, I am able to create the expanded inspiration resource on the site. And by featuring Color Atlas codes, folks are getting a gorgeous color match from concept to execution which I believe no other system can provide,” adds Colaluca.

When creating Design Seeds, Colaluca mixes each color swatch individually. She uses digital software much as she had gouache paint back in the early days of her career. For the seasonal atlas she then works with the Archroma team to translate her collection into selections from the 4,320 swatches in the six-volume Color Atlas. Fans of any color story can then refer to the Archroma color number which references swatches in the Color Atlas. Each color is readily available as an Engineered Color Standard and the digital reflectance data. All colors are also supported in Color Atlas Online (coloratlas.archroma.com) with dye formulas on multiple substrates, Hex, CMYK, sRGB values and a selection of surrounding similar Colors.

• Revenue up 11 percent to EUR 1,149.1 mn
• EBITDA increase of 38.8 percent to EUR 270.7 mn
• Detailed planning for new production plant for TENCEL® fibers in Thailand in Progress
• New sales offices opened in Turkey and Korea
• New EcoVeroTM branded viscose fibers with very favorable ecological footprint launched

The Lenzing Group generated new record highs in the first half of the 2017 financial year for both revenue and earnings. The key underlying factors were good capacity utilization, higher selling prices and an attractive product mix. Lenzing will continue to focus on the disciplined implementation of the Group strategy sCore TEN, in order to be even closer to the customer and to further expand the offering of specialty fibers.

Consolidated revenue increased by 11 percent from the first half of the previous financial year to EUR 1,149.1 mn. Consolidated earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were up 38.8 percent to EUR 270.7 mn, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 23.6 percent in comparison to 18.9 percent in the prior-year period. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased by 57.4 percent to EUR 204.2 mn, resulting in a higher EBIT margin of 17.8 percent (H1 2016: 12.5 percent). The profit for the period improved by 58.9 percent to EUR 150.3 mn, and earnings per share climbed 59 percent to EUR 5.55 per share.

“The first half-year developed very well for the Lenzing Group, and we are pleased with the best half-year period in the company’s history. We will continue our disciplined implementation of the sCore TEN strategy. The expansion of new state-of-the-art production capacities for our specialty fibers is proceeding well and will support our customers in their own expansion efforts for products made of our botanic fibers. The decision to set up a subsidiary and acquire a respective landplot in Thailand is the next step in the implementation of this strategy. On the innovation side we are proud that after the introduction of RefibraTM branded lyocell fibers, we launched now EcoVeroTM. This is a particularly high-performance fiber featuring a very favorable ecological footprint and sets the new benchmark for the entire industry – from fiber to garment”, states Stefan Doboczky, Chief Executive Officer of the Lenzing Group. “Assuming that fiber market conditions remain at current levels, we expect a substantial earnings improvement in 2017 compared to 2016.”

Lectra has developed partnerships with over 850 fashion schools across the world, providing them with solutions and expertise to help the teachers prepare students with the skills they require for the workplace. Working with leading education partners, Lectra organises regular student competitions in association with customers. The latest competition with Istituto Secoli, renowned for its pattern-making savoir-faire, and organized with Armani, is a clear example of industry and education working hand-in-hand to nurture young fashion designers.
Students at Istituto Secoli developed their collections using Lectra’s Modaris® and Diamino® solutions to create their patterns, prototypes and markers. In addition, students from the master’s program in menswear cut their creations with Vector®, Lectra’s state-of-the-art fabric cutting solution.

Thanks to the trusted relationship that Lectra has with its customer G.A. Operations of the Giorgio Armani group, one of the winning students, graduating in menswear, has the opportunity to take up an internship in the collection development department. "We were very pleased with Lectra's initiative and were delighted to offer educational internships at G.A. Operations. We chose the winning student for his creative skills and for his training on Modaris and Diamino. This gives us the important advantage of bringing somebody with proven technical skills into our team," stated Giorgio Ferremi, industrial director G.A. Operations at Trento.

An exciting new development, resulting from a Swiss collaboration between textile manufacturer Schoeller and auxiliaries and dyes specialists at Textilcolor. ecodye is a new auxiliary concept used, in particular, in polyester dyeing processes. The technology accelerates the dyeing process and contributes to cutting costs, while at the same time helping to preserve the environment with a low level of demand on resources.
Less time, less water, less energy – the new ecodye auxiliary concept allows eco-friendly and cost-saving dyeing processes for polyester yarns and piece goods. It shortens the heating phase, thus accelerating process time by more than 30 percent. At the same time, it reduces energy consumption by 20 percent and the water requirement by 25 percent, as the goods can be cleaned in the cooling dye bath.
In addition, ecodye improves the dyeing levelness in polyester textiles. Spots and dye agglomeration are almost completely avoided, and the precipitation on the goods that arises as a result of polyester oligomers are no longer evident. ecodye provides good shade stability and avoids reproduction problems from batch to batch, thus reducing the rate of double staining and increasing the capacity utilization and productivity of the dyeing mill on a long-term basis.

Following a successful launch phase, ecodye has already been able to provide numerous positive test results. The technology is being used by polyester-processing customers in categories including outdoor, sportswear and technical knitted fabrics, primarily in Europe, South and Middle America, Turkey, Bangladesh and China.