We are overwhelmed with the number of retailers who have joined us in our short stint of the first quarter. The team is excited to reach the milestone of 10,000 retailers before the end of this financial year.

Learning and unlearning the individual needs of the retailers who are spread into the different tiers and geo-locations is a consistent challenge which needs a dedicated team to handle.

During the pandemic, even as many Indian states and also other countries remained under lockdown, there were still some nations which were open. We felt that we should diversify; this was the right time to go into the Western markets.

A digitised marketplace needs digitised production capabilities. Screens have their place—but digital is a complementary solution that enables self-expression (unlimited designs, colours, etc.), creates new opportunities, optimises production floor operations (eliminating inefficiencies and wasteful overproduction), and better aligns with e-commerce to answer the explosion of creativity taking place worldwide.

Serving as an education model on recycling is one of the aims of doing this project, as said before; we want people to appreciate the value of clothes, think before they buy. There are still many potential applications of G2G. For example, it can be a workstation for designers to produce custom-made fashion items. The designers make clothes when they receive customers’ orders; they don’t need to keep stock.

An unprecedented pandemic coupled with large-scale devastation due to climate change has put the spotlight on various brands to reflect on their business practices and bring in necessary changes to help undo the damage already done to nature. These include reducing green-house-gas emissions, use of better raw materials, to production process, waste treatment and more.

Our brand is based on an innovative, patent-pending method for producing cork rugs, using traditional weaving techniques and a unique cork fabric. A cork rug manufactured using a hand loom is quite an innovation and this kind of rug cannot be found anywhere else in the world.

Affirming itself as a leading international company in the research, development and production of cork composite solutions, Amorim Cork Composites (one of Amorim's business units) develops ground-breaking concepts and has launched innovative products, applications and solutions in the market.

If a brand has specific designs that are required to reduce the costs they incur through an EPR scheme, they will go to those manufacturers that can meet their requirements. If a manufacturer will not design products in a way that reduces the cost burden on a brand, the brand suffers. This provides an incentive for brands to only work with those suppliers that support them in designing for circularity.

It is not sure if the EU legislation, even if the intentions are good, will be able to create an optimal scenario. A worst case scenario is that tightened legislation leads to higher costs which are passed on to the manufacturer, maintaining ‘races to the bottom’ in the industry. Avoiding this worst case scenario requires much closer collaboration between buyers and their suppliers. It also requires legislators such as the EU to really make a level playing field, avoiding the situation where some companies gain an unfair advantage by not following the rules because rules are not well enforced.

We believe in the myth that digital marketing is the way that leads to quick revenue generation and easy customer acquisition. Over the months, we realised that digital marketing is all about creating a brand image or identity and positioning it correctly for the right audience to start with.

After the growth recorded in 2021, the entire global textile machinery industry is now facing a period marked by great uncertainty. Rising energy costs, shortage of raw materials and electronic components, as well as the strong rise in shipping costs are hurting the entire industry.

We see the growth potential of on-demand production in all markets we represent, not just textiles. Through our exhibition, we’re giving printers access to innovative technologies and supporting workflows to enable them to capitalise on growth opportunities, including on-demand printing. It’s an exciting time for the print industry as we gear up for a decade of further digitisation across all market sectors.

We understand the fashion industry as an "ecosystem" in which not only many companies, but also every individual is directly or indirectly involved. Every human being on this planet wears clothes or textiles that have been more or less industrially produced. Accordingly, we also see a certain responsibility on the part of end consumers (at least in the leading industrial nations) to make their purchasing decisions (more) carefully.

The key drivers of the growing potential of technical textiles are coming from the user industries looking for innovation and the next generation of applications and products: lightweight, recycability, replacing other materials like textile concrete, protection, health, among others.

Many industries currently have an addiction to cheap fossil fuels, such as the footwear and fashion industries, and it is important that we as a society begin to ween those industries off of those unsustainable materials and move them towards natural and circular materials.

One of the last advancements we focus on is regenerative farming. Orta firmly believes that regenerative cotton is the modern and most pragmatic way to help stop climate change before it's too late. It is a blue-sky solution made viable and accessible through regenerative agriculture, and we are getting behind it to help this movement grow.

Continuous research to produce more sustainable fabrics is necessary, but we must be very careful. Fashion is fashion and it must remain so—beautiful, enticing, able to amaze, tickle desires, entice to buy... A flat product, similar one to another, certainly will be able to satisfy the word 'sustainable', but an unsold product, even if sustainable, goes back to the problem of recycling—something that is not consumed. Produce less, produce better and produce what is necessary—this is the real sustainability in my opinion!

The financial issues were tackled smartly by company’s directors who decided not to lay off any employee or make any salary cuts. The owners funded all the financial setbacks from their own pockets and this decision actually helped us as the employees really started to work with more dedication and were a big support in making the company running at full capacity once again.

Many customers came back looking for quality Italian denim fabrics and we were ready to supply them. In dealing with suppliers, the most complicated thing has been managing delivery times, which have lengthened considerably, besides the price increases.