Spanish fashion retailer Mango has closed a quite profitable year, seeing its full year net profit jumped by 79 percent. Profit after tax in 2012 amounted to 113.4 million euros, with 84 percent of turnover coming from foreign markets and 16 percent corresponding to the domestic market. Mango closed 2012 with a turnover of 1,691 million euros, 20 percent more than in the previous year. As explained in a corporate note, Mango relates the good figures to the changes implemented during the first h

Swedish fashion chain H&M has announced that its next designer collaboration will be with Parisian designer Isabel Marant. The collection, set to roll out across 250 H&M stores worldwide and online in November, will feature apparel and accessories for women and for the first time Marant will create a collection for men. Marant, known for her effortless style and influential take on Parisian chic by mixing urban attitude, boho elegance and rock ‘n’ roll spirit, will be creating a wardrob

Following the expansion of the SVHC Candidate List to include 54 new substances, taking the total number of products, including DecaBDE, to 138 on December 19, 2013, SGS has provided an updated SVHC Screen Lite Programme that helps fulfilling the REACH SVHC requirements for textile and footwear products. In order to assist the industry, experts in the SGS technical competence centre have developed a robust and cost effective SVHC screening programme targeting high risk SVHCs. The high ri

US textile and apparel imports during April recovered from a slowdown in March, rising by 15.6%, to 4.39 billion square metre equivalents (SME), virtually on a par with the level recorded in April 2012 (see accompanying table). Cumulative imports during the first four months of the year rose to 17.34 billion SME, which was 4.0% higher than the comparable figure in 2012. That growth was driven primarily by increased shipments of apparel, which rose by 6.55% versus a year earlier. Textile impo

Once bitten, twice shy. Recent disputes between Indian apparel makers and private equity (PE) investors are making the latter more cautious of investments in the segment. PE investors are taking a harder look across all levels of the market, in the backdrop of recent tussles such as SAIF Partners versus Catmoss Retail, now before the Delhi High Court. SAIF, which holds 49 per cent stake in Catmoss, had alleged the latter mishandled Rs 115 crore of PE investment and also of raising money withou

Vietnam’s garment and textile export volumes to the U.S. and the European Union have increased from earlier in the year but unit prices have sharply declined. Data released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA) showed that China took the lead for apparel exports to the U.S. in the first quarter with revenue of US$8.7 billion, followed by Vietnam US$2 billion, India US$1.6 billion, Indonesia US$1.4 billion and Bangladesh US$1.3 billion. Vietnam posted t

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, aimed at integrating the economies of the Asia-Pacific region, would also bring challenges to the Vietnam garment sector, experts said at a conference held in Vietnam’s southern province of Tien Giang. At the conference, organized by the Vietnam National Apparel Association and the Tien Giang People’s Committee, experts said the TPP agreement requires that Vietnamese enterprises import raw materials from TPP members, which would be a challenge as

While export of cotton is rising, import of long staple cotton is continuing, despite high import cost due to rupee depreciation. The landed cost of extra long staple at Indian ports is Rs 66,275 a candy (365 kg), but some mills are insisting on cotton yarn produced from US and Egyptian cotton, as it is of better variety. South Indian mills find it more viable to import cotton from Africa, as it is cheaper for them to import than have cotton transported from Gujarat or Maharashtra. The contamin

Angola is spending $1 billion to revamp three fabric plants that will employ 2,700 people, said the local unit of Marubeni Corp. (8002), Japan’s biggest trader of grains and food products, which is rehabilitating the factories. Reconstruction of the $270 million Textang II facility, which will be able to produce 9 million meters (30 million feet) of fabric annually, may be completed in two months, Koichi Nagashima, managing director of Marubeni’s Angolan unit, said in a June 6 interview in the

Cotton futures jumped to the highest in almost five weeks after the government cut its forecast for output in the U.S., the world’s leading exporter. In the 12 months starting Aug. 1, American farmers may harvest 13.5 million bales, down from 14 million projected last month, the Department of Agriculture said today. On average, analysts expected 13.98 million bales, a Bloomberg News survey showed. Domestic output will drop 22 percent after a drought hurt crops. The agency also boosted its expo