Apparels

New Balance Football has signed Bundesliga champion Jeremie Frimpong.
The Bayer Leverkusen right back, known for his attacking style, joins as part of New Balance’s push to support emerging talent.
Beyond football, the brand will back his non-profit, The Pathways Project, helping young players explore careers beyond the sport.
Frimpong will feature in New Balance’s performance and lifestyle campaigns.

With the Union Budget 2025-26 approaching, the textile and apparel industry seeks increased funding, modifications to the PLI scheme, infrastructure improvements, and measures for stabilizing raw material prices. Industry leaders emphasize the importance of supporting tier 2 and 3 city clusters, enhancing retail growth, and fostering sustainable manufacturing practices to boost global competitiveness.

De Beers has announced its entry into the retail market by opening 15 Forevermark brand stores in India this year. They plan to expand to 100 stores by 2030, targeting a revenue of USD 1 million. The first store is expected to open between June and July.

PDS Limited has reported ₹4,402 crore (~$509.3 million) GMV in Q3 FY25, up 16 per cent YoY, with revenue at ₹3,125 crore (+21 per cent). PAT grew 66 per cent to ₹43 crore.
For 9M FY25, GMV hit ₹13,737 crore (+31 per cent YoY), and revenue rose 26 per cent to ₹9,052 crore (~$1.05 billion).
PDS is acquiring a 55 per cent stake in KGIPL for ₹41 crore.

Canada Goose appointed Judit Bankus as Senior VP of Merchandising to drive product strategy with a focus on sustainability and innovation.
Reporting to President Carrie Baker, she will oversee global merchandising, pricing, and category expansion, working with Creative Director Haider Ackermann.
With experience at Stella McCartney, Burberry, and Karl Lagerfeld, she aims to fuel brand growth.

Bangladesh’s apparel-textile trade bodies have urged the government to suspend the plan to raise gas prices for the industrial sector and captive power plants, and formulate a medium-to-long term strategy and time-bound action plan to ensure uninterrupted gas supply.
Banking sector issues, labour dissatisfaction and security concerns have further strained production and supply chains, they said.

Exports from Bangladesh’s export processing zones grew by 22.41 per cent YoY in H1 FY25 to $4,126 million, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (BEPZA) said.
BEPZA contributed 29 per cent of total FDI in FY24.
Thirty eight countries invested in EPZs under BEPZA in the period.
Among these, 108 were Chinese, 61 South Korean, 29 Japanese, 19 Indian, 19 British, 17 US and seven Sri Lankan.

Jordan’s exports to the US reached 2.044 billion Jordanian Dinars ($2.881 billion) in January–November 2024, a 14.9 per cent increase from 2023.
Garments, key to the export basket, rose 13.51 per cent to $1.741 billion.
The US accounted for 79.56 per cent of Jordan’s garment exports.
Despite fluctuations in previous years, trade reflects strong ties.

Though 2024 saw the continued rollout of legislation mandating human rights and environmental due diligence in supply chains, QIMA data suggests that a certain percentage of facilities still tends to resist improvement.
Critical violations related to work hours and wages were recorded in one-third of Bangladesh factories inspected last year—a rate notably higher compared to 2023 figures.

AEPC has urged the government to reform labour laws, improve workforce skilling schemes, and make fabric import policies more flexible to boost apparel exports. The goal is to achieve USD 40 billion in exports by 2030, with emphasis on capacity building and addressing skilled labour shortages. The council highlights India’s design strength and favourable FTAs.