Posts filed under 'Apparel & Garments'

DMK channel to take on Sun

CHENNAI: With the Karunanidhi-Maran family feud depriving the DMK of valuable air time, the party is all set to launch a TV channel of its own. The new channel will be called Kalaignar TV and ride piggyback on Raj TV, rival of the Maran family’s Sun TV.

Sun TV had long been identified with the DMK whose election symbol is the rising sun. After the Maran and Karunanidhi families parted ways over a survey on who would succeed DMK chief and Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi carried by Dinakaran — a Tamil daily owned by the Marans — the DMK was left with no television channel to act as its mouthpiece.

Its rival AIADMK has Jaya TV named after its leader J Jayalalithaa while the PMK has a popular Makkal TV to promote its interests. Now, Kalaignar TV, which will be launched early June, will take the place of Sun TV for
DMK. Karunanidhi is popularly known as ‘Kalaignar’ (meaning artist) in the state.

Raj TV managing director M Rajendran, however, denied that the new channel had anything to do with the DMK or Karunanidhi. “The name Kalaignar has nothing to do with the DMK or the government. We already had plans to launch 11 channels that have been approved by our board.

Kalaignar is the first of the 11 channels. As you know, it means artist, it also has a recall value.
The Karunanidhi link is a coincidence,” he said.

Rajendran also said that Raj TV (a listed company) would not be sold. However, sources said the new channel had the support of the DMK leadership and could adopt the rising sun logo.

Kalaignar TV will offer a mix of entertainment and news. Rajendran is on record saying the new channel would function the same way as Sun TV did before — that is being a mouthpiece of the DMK.

Meanwhile, Sun TV, which is in the process of vacating the DMK headquarters Anna Arivalayam, is looking for a place to buy or rent out, until its state-of-the-art complex in MRC Nagar is ready.

Ironically, while the share prices of Sun TV’s Rs 16,000 crore network fell since Dayanidhi Maran’s resignation as the Union telecommunication and IT minister on May 13, Raj TV has been enjoying, not only government patronage, but also a steady rise in its scrip.

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Add comment May 22nd, 2007

China imports force evolution on garment trade

China imports force evolution on garment trade
With Chinese clothing flooding the United States, Henry Fan foresees a huge shakeout in the

Los Angeles garment industry, the largest in the country. “Companies will go to the wall,” he said.  But Fan is confident that Basic Elements, the apparel-importing company that he leads, will survive the flood of apparel from China that is leading U.S. retailers to demand discounted prices from importers, the middlemen of the global garment trade. And Basic Elements will not go upscale, the strategy that many of its rivals are pursuing.  Rather, Fan said he was expecting growth from acquiring distressed companies and from gaining the size and strength to withstand the risks of supplying big retailers, even at the low prices that Chinese imports dictate.  “Risks are substantial in working with large volumes of products that mass merchants require,” Fan said. “If something goes wrong, you have to air-freight rather than ship to meet the schedule. The margin for error is thin.”  “We have overseas offices in Hong Kong and in many parts of China as well as Bangladesh and

Thailand,” he added. “We can design products here or overseas and ship them anywhere - we can tackle the job in numerous ways.” In short, Fan wants to make Basic Elements a central part of the new supply equation of Chinese factories and American retailers.  That is a tall order. Employment in the Los Angeles-area garment industry, which is made up of thousands of small companies, has fallen to 118,000 from 142,000 in 1997. And the outlook is dire.  With the elimination of most quotas this year, Chinese imports swelled into a torrent, increasing by more than 1,300 percent in some categories. With such an abundance of cheap clothing to choose from, American retailers have stepped up pressure on their suppliers to cut prices on the goods they design, import and distribute.  Basic Elements was founded in 1978 by Paul Hui, an immigrant from Hong Kong, back when it was exceedingly difficult for American companies to do business in

China. They needed permits from the Chinese government and knowledge of

China’s factories.  Hui supplied the knowledge and contacts and was able to build his company to $50 million in annual sales, with headquarters in the Los Angeles suburb of Irwindale and offices in Hong Kong and

Bangladesh.  Today, Basic Elements imports about 30 million garments a year, including children’s clothing for Toys “R” Us stores and women’s apparel for the national chain

Chico’s. Hui died of cancer this year, after passing on the chief executive’s title to Fan, a 33-year-old Taiwan-born professional manager with a background in finance and technology.  Fan is thinking big in a global market where

China will be a major permanent factor. Chinese apparel exports to the United States surged to $12 billion in the first half from $8 billion in all of 2004, and they now account for almost 20 percent of all apparel imports.  Fan faces a decidedly different global environment than Hui did more than a quarter-century ago. More large American retailers want to deal directly with Chinese factories. And Chinese factory executives and entrepreneurs are investing in

Southern California companies. They do that, said Dominic Ng, chairman of East West Bank, a leading lender to the Chinese community, “to qualify for visas to come to America” as well as to gain a larger foothold in the American marketplace.  As Fan sees it, “It’s a classic case of squeezing the middleman, from above and below.” He sees a bigger distribution pipeline as a way to squeeze back, but that is not the conventional strategy that many

Los Angeles companies favor.  Ilse Metchek, executive director of the California Fashion Association, a trade group with more than 250 member companies, said: “Our industry must focus on fashion, as

Italy has done for 500 years. The model for

Los Angeles must be unique design and quality to warrant higher prices and protect profit margins.”  Metchek recommends a boutique approach. A recent contemporary fashion show in the

Los Angeles garment district, with wares like blue jeans that have a wholesale price of $150 and sell in stores for $300, featured company owners who were giving up the struggle to supply general department stores.  For example, Orly Dahan, president of Tag Rag, a maker of trendy denim clothing, saw his profit disappear as major retailers pushed him to discount his prices drastically. “So I stopped,” Dahan said, “and now I concentrate on fashion and supply specialty stores.”  It takes ingenuity to compete in a time of falling worldwide prices, when “a manufacturer in China can land a pair of jeans in the

United States for $8.50 and make a profit,” said George Rudes, an apparel industry veteran of five decades. Rudes’s latest company, SLL, features a design for a girdle-like Tummy Tuck jeans designed by his daughter, Lisa Rudes-Sandel.  “You must innovate, as we did,” said Rudes, who has the specialized jeans manufactured in the

United States and sells them wholesale for $44, with a recommended retail price below $100.    

Souce:By James Flanigan The New York Times

Add comment February 9th, 2007

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