Apparel Buzz

Sri Lankan owned label manufacturing company, Impressions Labels Lanka (Pvt) Ltd announced the opening of a new water purification plant located at their factory premises at Homagama. This project was initially decided as a result of the green manufacturing process currently being used and mainly due to the concern and care that the company has towards the protecting environment for the future. The project was initialised at the beginning of this year and completed by covering all compliances, the company said in a statement.

Brandix Mercury Asia (Pvt.) Ltd. was recently awarded the Platinum Approved Employer Trainee Development status by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

The MAS Holdings, Deutsche Bank and Dialog Summer Internship Program concluded on the 15 August 2012 at the Dialog Future World Academy.

The Brandix Group has announced plans to extend the Gap Inc. Personal and Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) programme for female garment workers to the Group’s facilities in Sri Lanka.

The apparel industry has been given a boost following a US$1 billion government initiative to establish 100 factories together with the Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF).With most factories tipped to find their way to the North and East of the country, JAAF Deputy Chairman and Orit Apparels MD Channa Palansuriya told the Business Times, that one of the main aims behind this is to reverse orders going to Bangladesh.

The Hirdaramani Group recently held a Leadership Forum for its future leaders, bringing together a distinguished panel of successful businessmen from multiple disciplines.

Commitment to excellence in Human Resource Management has won the Brandix Group a Gold award at the 2012 HRM Awards presented by the Association of Human Resource Professionals in partnership with Aon Hewitt, the largest human resource consulting group in the world.

WGSN is the online industry resource, research, trend analysis and news service for the fashion and style industries. The number-one choice for 38,000 professionals providing actionable resources tailored to your business, essential tool for designers, marketers, buyers and merchandisers for all fashion sectors used by global brands including Calvin Klein, H&M, adidas and BMW.  www.wgsn.com

Colombo, Sri Lanka: next Sourcing, a wholly owned subsidiary of next Plc, UK, the retail clothing and accessory giant, celebrated Long Service Awards 2012 in Sri Lanka recently. The company-organized an employee recognition awards program which was held at the Grand Ballroom, Hilton Colombo amidst a gathering of next team members, and was graced by Mr. Gwyn Williams, Regional Director – next Sourcing, Mr. Chanaka Perera, Director/General Manager, Mr. Hugh McConnell, Senior Technical Manager and Mr. Wilhelm Elias, Senior Merchandise Manager.

MAS Intimates, the pioneering lingerie manufacturing division of fashion and lifestyle group MAS Holdings, was honoured for the organization’s exceptional and innovative HR practices at Asia’s Best Employer Brand (ABEB) Awards 2012. The grand awards gala, hosted by the Employer Branding Institute, World HRD Congress & Stars of the Industry Group together with CMO Asia, endorsed by the Asian Confederation of Businesses and Universum Asia, was held on the 19th of July 2012 at Park Royal, Singapore. MAS Intimates was feted with the Award for Best HR Strategy in line with Business as well as the Award for Excellence in Training.

SriLankan Airlines recently flew a delegation of creative professionals, along with special Sri Lankan made fashion, design and craft exhibits from Colombo to London, to launch the 2012 edition of the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF).

South Asia Textiles Industries Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. (SATL), a leading fabric manufacturer in Sri Lanka received the prestigious Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certification with their compliance to the 12 WRAP principles recently. The WRAP certification comes months after SATL was awarded the GOTS certification which is the leading processing standard for textiles made from organic fibbers’ worldwide. It defines the high level environmental criteria along the entire supply chain of organic textiles.

Top apparel exporter Brandix partnered with banking giant HSBC to assist more than 600 families facing severe hardship in Sri Lanka’s dry zone due to the prevailing drought.

JOIN WITH SLDF
OPPORTUNITIES FOR

- PARTNERSHIPS
- BECOMING A DELEGATE/SPEAKER/PANELLIST
- BUSINESS- TO-BUSINESS
-DESIGN COLLABORATIONS
- EDUCATIONAL EXCHANGES
- PARTICIPATION

SRI LANKA DESIGN FESTIVAL (SLDF) IS THE ISLAND’S BIGGEST ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF UNIQUELY SRI LANKAN DESIGN AND INDUSTRY. IT BRINGS TOGETHER A RANGE OF EXCITING EVENTS THAT SHOWCASE SRI LANKA’S VIBRANT CREATIVE INDUSTRIES, WITH A FOCUS ON ITS WORLDRENOWNED APPAREL INDUSTRY. SLDF ALSO SHOWCASES SRI LANKA’S RICH HERITAGE, THROUGH A FOCUS ON THE CRAFT INDUSTRY.

Positioning Sri Lanka as the ‘Land of Possibilities’, the festival offers a never-seen-before combination of cutting-edge apparel making, sustainable fashion, traditional craft, culture, design and business

With REVEAL 2012, AOD extends an open invitation to the design led industries – fashion, apparel, advertising, graphic/animation and print along with interior design, furniture, architecture and photography – to come witness Sri Lanka’s best, young design talent at AOD REVEAL international design exhibition.

Sri Lanka’s top apparel exporter Brandix has been adjudged Asia’s ‘Best Brand’ for the second consecutive year by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and won three more awards at the 2012 CMO Asia Awards for Excellence in Branding and Marketing held at Park Royal, Singapore.

United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia A. Butenis, earlier this week opened an apparel factory in Thirukkovil, Ampara, set up under the Eastern Garment Alliance, a public private alliance between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Daya Apparel Pvt Ltd, the US Embassy said in a statement on Tuesday.

Academy of Design (AOD), Sri Lanka’s international design campus offering undergraduate education in fashion, fashion marketing, graphics, interior and animation design, is now the only campus in South Asia to offer Northumbria’s award winning design degrees. At a recently held gathering at the AOD campus Colombo, an independent Approval Panel nominated by Northumbria with UK QA, evaluated AOD’s faculty qualifications, teaching standards, campus facilities and vision in par with Northumbria school of design – one of Europe’s top five ranked design educators.