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Singapore based enfantenfant.com: Looking for organic suppliers

Blix Wong, Account Executive
Blix Wong, Account Executive

A relatively new venture, Singapore based enfantenfant.com with its parent company in France, which specializes in baby clothing, is looking for organic suppliers in India. Its Account Executive Blix Wong was recently in Tirupur for the same. “We have a strong network in South East Asia primarily Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Brunei and more than 200 good retailers are associated with us,” informed Wong. Talking to the Apparel Online team in Tirupur recently, she stressed the importance of organic clothing in babies wear. “We believe that organic products will be more in demand with each passing day and so we are looking to develop good vendors who can meet our increased demand,” said Wong.

Earlier the company was sourcing its organic cotton requirements from Turkey, but with the country becoming expensive, enfantenfant.com is now exploring India as a viable option. Tirupur being the hub for organic baby wear, Wong is busy meeting vendors for her requirements. “Basically our collections per style are around 2,000 to 3,000 pieces and we work on many collections at the same time. Our target is to make organic affordable for everyone,” said Wong. Besides selling through leading retail formats, the company is also selling its collections online.

DyStar expands capacity production of Indigo plant in China

DyStar, a colouration specialist for the textile and leather industries, and its owner, the Zhejiang Longsheng Group of China, principally engaged in the manufacture and distribution of specialty chemical products, are celebrating 115 years of technical Indigo synthesis at Ludwigshafen, Germany, where the first commercially feasible manufacturing process was launched.

The journey of synthetic indigo, which began way back in 1897 with the introduction of “pure indigo” from BASF, gave rise to such a huge demand that by the year 1913, natural indigo had been almost entirely replaced. To date, more than 2,60,000 tonnes of the dye has been produced at the Ludwigshafen production plant, sufficient to dye about 26 billion pairs of jeans.

“With our patented DyStar Indigo® Vat 40 per cent solution and contribution to synthetic Indigo, we are planning to expand the capacity at our Nanjing Indigo plant in China,” informed Harry Dobrowolski, CEO, DyStar Group, reaffirming their commitment to the denim industry.

 

DyStar joins Sustainable Apparel Coalition…

DyStar Singapore Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based textile dyes and chemicals manufacturer has joined Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) to promote sustainable and socially responsible practices among apparel and footwear producers and reduce the global environmental and social impacts of their products. SAC is a global organization comprising of apparel and footwear brands, retailers, manufacturers, non-governmental organizations, academic experts and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

DyStar cooperates with many SAC brand and retailer members in the development of seasonal colour palettes, owing to its Charlotte-based Colour Solutions International business. The company also uses its e-confidence program to make sure that its products comply with Restricted Substance List requirements. Also being a member of The Ecological and Toxicological Association of Dyes and Organic Pigments Manufacturers (ETAD) and a System Partner of sustainable textile standard developer blue-sign AG, both based in Switzerland; and also a member of the O’Donnell, Texas-based Textile Exchange, the company offers a Sustainable Textile Service to brands and retailers to assist them in matters concerning chemical requirements, among other services and provides technical expertise to its customers to assist them in finding ways to reduce water and energy consumption in their manufacturing processes.

Harry Dobrowolski, President, DyStar Group said, “Our membership of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition signifies our commitment to working together with our partners in the industry to deliver systemic change in the way that textiles are manufactured globally.”

 

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WFX PLM On-Demand have a new user Fashion Retailer “F J Benjamin”

Singapore listed F J Benjamin has signed on to WFX On-Demand’s Web-Based PLM Solution to use across all their in-house brands and global vendor base. The Group is implementing WFX’s solution across their offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen and their vendor base across 4 countries.

F J Benjamin has numerous product development teams in place to manage different product categories but consolidated sourcing units and some common vendors. WFX will provide a single point of information across all product related activities across all brands and vendors. With this visibility, F J Benjamin will be able to source more efficiently, reduce product costs and achieve higher margins.

“Our business has grown significantly and as a result various business units have adopted various processes for product development. We needed a single system to manage all these disconnected processes and WFX is simple enough to help us achieve that goal,” Odile Benjamin, Co-Creative Director.

With over 50 years of expertise, F J Benjamin is an industry leader in brand building and in developing retail and distribution networks for international luxury and lifestyle brands across Asia. Headquartered in Singapore and listed on the Singapore Exchange since 1996, F J Benjamin has offices in 8 cities worldwide including Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. It is the importer and distributor of over 20 iconic brands including Banana Republic, Celine, Gap, Givenchy, Goyard, Guess, La Senza and RAOUL for which it operates over 160 retail stores/shop-in-shops and employs over 2,000 employees.

WFX is the leader in On-Demand Product Development Software – Web PLM and Web PDM – for the Fashion and Apparel Industry. Subscription-based pricing plans and fanatical support ensures customers get the quickest return on their investment.

 

Twin Star Machinery Introduces New Version of INA Hanger Systems

Francis Ang, President of Twin Star Group in front of his latest INA Hanger System
Francis Ang, President of Twin Star Group in front of his latest INA Hanger System

Singapore-based Twin Star Machinery started their journey in 1985 with sewing machines, today they are known worldwide for INA Hanger Systems. The company claims that in 2010 alone 10,000 work stations were supplied to China, while another 5000 was implemented in other countries. “The sales target is to reach 30,000 stations,” says Francis Ang, President Twin Star Group. At Texprocess the company introduced the latest edition of INA Hanger Systems in which Microsoft Windows 7 has been incorporated. According to the company this system has a projected life of 10 to 20 years, while the space required for setup is also very low as it needs only 2.53 sq. metres per station. While the standard height of this system is 2.25 metres, the same can be made as per the customer’s specification.

For greater efficiency the chain speed has been enhanced and the company claims that a 40 station setup can produce five to six thousand pieces of round neck T- shirts or 2200 pieces of polo shirts in 9 hours. An added feature is the low power consumption, which makes it an ideal system in times when saving cost is an important consideration.

The technology driving the machine has been updated and while earlier barcode chips were being used, in the latest model it has been replaced by RFID. Saving on manpower, garment factories having separate cutting, sewing and finishing room need only 3 supervisors to handle the system, as this hanger system can carry the pieces to the different departments and then came back to the original line. All the operations are done by the computer and with an automatic calculation system to measure efficiency levels built into the software it is easy to obtain each line’ s output. The new INA Hanger System is available in three classes – Basic, Standard and Deluxe. Both Deluxe and Standard class can deal with multi-styles and average cost per work station is 1800 USD.

“For customized solutions we coordinate with the IE department and study the layout of the factory,” informs Ang. The company sends trainers, supervisors and maintenance team to the customer’ s factory for successful implementation.

Ang adds that the Indian market is big with huge potential, though many companies are not comfortable with hanger systems and prefer the traditional way of working.

 

Lawson Fashion PLM Goes Live with Raymond Group ColorPlus

Lawson Software, the global enterprise software and service solution provider to over 4500 customers across 40 countries, has implemented its PLM solution at ColorPlus, a premium Indian casual wear brand of Raymond. The Lawson PLM is a comprehensive product design and development tool for retailers and manufacturers of apparel and accessories, Lawson PLM solution is already running at Madura Garments, a major apparel and retail company and ITC Lifestyle.

Lawson Fashion PLM is a web-based suite of applications that facilitates the management of products, from design through production. The Software keeps a central view of product information, including techpacks, BOMs, color libraries, design and fit samples, lab dips, costsheets, and line plans and automates and integrates project status and timelines, including status alerts, making the full context of the timeline and status visible to prevent disconnects and highlight schedule problems.

“Raymond is a fast-growing and dynamic company. We are pleased that they have selected Lawson and Ptex Solutions as their partners and are now able to drive product development process efficiencies after implementing Lawson Fashion PLM,” said Shane Cumming, Industry Director, Fashion, Lawson Asia-Pacific & Japan.

The growing importance of the Asian region has made Lawson appoint a full-time Regional Director for Asia Pacific and Japan, Haren Samarasekera. Samarasekera will also support the regional sales and services units in aligning key Lawson objectives and creating customer value. He will be reporting to David Hope, GM & Regional MD, Lawson Asia-Pacific & Japan.