Worldview: Argentina’s Textile Trade Disaster

🇦🇷 Argentina’s manufacturing hub loses 100,000 textile business jobs. Mario Giambattistelli, president of an area business physique based mostly in Rosario, the biggest metropolis within the province of Santa Fe, mentioned that 160 textile factories and workshops have closed, resulting in an alarming variety of job losses within the two months since December. In an interview with an area radio station, he warned that if there isn’t any change within the subsequent 90 days, it will likely be “virtually unimaginable to fabricate clothes in Argentina.” For years, Argentine corporations have needed to navigate financial crises brought on by hyperinflation, spiralling debt, forex devaluations, restrictive authorities measures and commerce impediments. Now they face extra turbulence because the nation’s unorthodox new president Javier Milei introduces ‘shock remedy’ insurance policies to revive the economic system. [FashionNetwork]

🇨🇳 Premier Li Qiang vows to ‘remodel’ China’s weakened economic system. Talking on the Nationwide Folks’s Congress this week in Beijing, as a part of the Two Periods annual plenary authorities periods, Li set a GDP progress goal of “round 5 %” for 2024, a determine that many take into account to be formidable given the state of the economic system. China’s home luxurious market is predicted to develop simply 4 to six % in 2024, in accordance with BoF’s State of Trend report, amid gentle demand as a result of financial headwinds together with a chronic actual property sector disaster, deflationary pressures, a inventory market rout, slowing manufacturing output and excessive ranges of youth unemployment. [CNN, BBC]

🇦🇺 Australian womenswear model Dissh secures billionaire investor. The corporate led by Lucy Henry-Hicks and based by her mom, has offered a stake to retail mogul Brett Blundy by his non-public funding car BBRC which has beforehand invested in jewelry model Lovisa and Accent Group, a retail operator for manufacturers like Timberland, Ugg and Kappa throughout Australasia with over 800 shops. The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed. In November, one other native billionaire, Andrew Forrest, upped his trend investments with the acquisition of Australian hatmaker Akubra. [Australian Financial Review]

🇻🇳 Considerations rise about Vietnamese plans to curb employee’s rights. Authorities leaders within the nation, which has change into a globally necessary attire and footwear manufacturing hub, have issued Directive 24, compelling officers to carefully monitor commerce unions and labour disputes. In response to human rights watchdog The 88 Challenge, the transfer stands in distinction to the pledges Vietnam is predicted to make later this yr if it ratifies the Worldwide Labour Group’s Conference 87. [Al Jazeera]

🇰🇷 Farfetch’s new Korean proprietor Coupang earns first yearly revenue. The New York-listed e-commerce big based in South Korea has reported that gross sales in 2023 grew 18 % to $24.3 billion, with working revenue reaching $473 million, marking the corporate’s first annual revenue and a serious turnaround from the $112 million loss a yr earlier. [Nikkei Asia]

🇦🇺 Australia’s BlockTexx raises AU$7 million in Sequence B funding. The textile recycling agency has secured an funding of US$4.6 million in a spherical from Netherlands-based Trend for Good and current buyers Mike and Sue Gregg, and Artesian Investments to scale its know-how by increasing its textile restoration facility in Queensland. [TexFash, Ecotextile News]

🇨🇳 Alibaba-owned South Asian e-commerce big Daraz declares layoffs. The struggling clothing-to-electronics e-commerce platform, which operates in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar, has introduced it’s going to lower headcount throughout the group, performing CEO James Dong mentioned in an inside memo to workers, with out disclosing precise figures. [Reuters]

🇦🇺 Elle Australia relaunches print version after a four-year hiatus. Are Media, the corporate which has the rights to the native version of the style journal, has launched the primary of two print editions that might be printed this yr. Not too long ago appointed editor Grace O’Neill mentioned that the plan is to progressively enhance the variety of points to 4 subsequent yr and 6 in 2026. Elle Australia shut down its print version in 2020 amid the pandemic. [AdNews, Ragtrader]

🇯🇵 Shiseido Firms’ Japanese skincare model Ipsa scales again in China. The high-end model is reportedly withdrawing a few of its counters within the nation together with the closure of its idea retailer in Shanghai’s Pudong Lujiazui Heart. However Shiseido China characterised the transfer as regular changes in its offline enterprise. [Jing Daily]

🇮🇳 Reliance Industries is reportedly in talks to convey Primark to India. The conglomerate that’s the native companion for quite a few international trend manufacturers is believed to be in exploratory talks with the British price range trend chain to enter the India market, a transfer that will see it compete in opposition to worth gamers like Tata’s Zudio, Landmark Group’s Max and Consumers Cease’s InTune. [Economic Times]

🇨🇱 Chile-based Latin American retail big Falabella posts surge in This fall revenue. The division retailer group with operations in key regional markets Chile, Brazil, Peru, Argentina and Colombia, has reported web revenue soared greater than ninefold to 70.42 billion pesos ($79.6 million), at the same time as income fell by 5.5 % from the identical interval final yr to three.12 trillion pesos. [Reuters]

🇮🇳 Indian baggage maker Safari Industries secures $27.6 million funding. The corporate behind the Safari baggage and equipment model has bagged 229 crore rupees from Lighthouse Funds, a shopper and healthcare-focused non-public fairness agency that beforehand invested in Nykaa, FabIndia, Kama Ayurveda. [Economic Times]

🇨🇱 Chile’s retail big Cencosud Purchasing appoints new CEO. The subsidiary working buying centres throughout the Chile, Peru and Colombia markets beneath the Cencomalls model, has named insider Sebastián Bellocchio Fioretti as its new chief. In January, father or mother Cencosud Group, considered one of South America’s largest retailers, had appointed Rodrigo Larrain Kaplan as CEO. [Forbes Chile]

🇮🇳 Trend e-tailer Myntra receives $54 million injection from father or mother Flipkart. Holding firm FK Myntra Holdings Pvt Ltd has obtained the funding from the Walmart-owned Indian multi-category e-commerce big amid rising competitors from Reliance’s Ajio and Tata Cliq. The January infusion was the second funding from Flipkart in a yr, following $105 million in March 2023. [Economic Times]

🇦🇪 World PR big Ruder Finn acquires Dubai PR agency Atteline. The 75-year-old firm has acquired the agency based by Sophie Simpson, which has a various vary of purchasers together with manufacturers within the trend, magnificence and jewelry classes, for an undisclosed quantity, and plans to make use of the UAE firm as its new base for the Gulf area. [Arabian Business]

🇦🇺 Australian Trend Week names rising designer programme winners. IMG, the corporate behind the biannual occasion, has introduced that the manufacturers that gained a slot to indicate as a part of trend week’s Subsequent Gen 2024 programme in Could in Sydney are Amy Lawrance, Emily Watson, Home of Campbell and Potirakis. [BoF Inbox]

🇸🇦 Saudi 100 Manufacturers presents all-female designers in Paris. The travelling showcase spearheaded by the Saudi Trend Fee featured sixteen designers together with Mona Alshebil, Apoa, Ashwaq Almarshad, Charmaleena and Dazluq. [Arab News]

🇨🇳 Givenchy indicators China’s Fan Chengcheng and Li Bingbing. The sweetness division of the French luxurious model has tapped Fan, a male singer and actor, whereas the style division has tapped Li, an actress who seems in US and Chinese language movies, as model ambassadors. [Jing Daily, BoF Inbox]

🇲🇾 Helena Rubinstein faucets Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as ambassador. L’Oréal Group’s high-end magnificence model has chosen the Oscar-winning Hollywood A-lister, who began her profession in Hong Kong within the Nineteen Nineties earlier than transferring the US and starring in main blockbusters. [Cosmetics Business]

🇨🇳 Dior faucets pianist Lang Lang as new model ambassador. The French luxurious model has linked arms with the Chinese language classical musician with a world status and 17 million followers on China’s social media community Weibo. [Jing Daily]

🇹🇭 Gucci appoints Thai actor and singer Gulf as model ambassador. The Italian luxurious model has tapped the star of movies like “Bua Pen Enjoyable Yap”, whose actual title is Kanawut Traipipattanapong, as ambassador. [L’Officiel Malaysia]

🇨🇳 Versace appoints Chinese language actor Bai Jingting as perfume ambassador. The Italian luxurious model has partnered with the star of movies like “Yesterday As soon as Extra” and TV collection “Ping Pong”. [Jing Daily]