Import Numbers Show Retailers Restocking As Holiday Season Hits Final Days

WASHINGTON — December 8, 2017 — Imports at the nation’s major retail container ports are expected to increase 1.5 percent this month over the same time last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released today by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. The year, which included five of the seven busiest months for imports on record, should end with a healthy 6.4 percent increase over 2016.

“Retailers are doing last-minute restocking as consumers head toward the finish line of the shopping season, but the majority of holiday merchandise is already in the country and ports are beginning to quiet down,” NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “With tax cuts that will leave more money in shoppers’ pockets in the headlines and consumer confidence high, all signs are that this has been a strong holiday season.”

Gold added, however, that retailers’ ability to provide consumers with quality products at affordable prices could be threatened if the United States pulls out of the North American Free Trade Agreement or engages in other anti-trade policy that fails to recognize the increased employment and other contributions imports make to the nation’s economy.

“Despite constant threats from the administration regarding trade, especially free trade agreements, imports have been riding high,” Gold said. “Concerns continue about what will happen in 2018 and beyond.”

Ports covered by Global Port Tracker handled 1.77 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units in October, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available. That was up 0.3 percent from September and up 5.9 percent year-over-year. A TEU is one 20-foot-long cargo container or its equivalent.

November was estimated at 1.64 million TEU, down 0.3 percent from last year, and December is forecast at 1.6 million TEU, up 1.5 percent.

The total for 2017 is expected to come to 20 million TEU, topping last year’s previous record of 18.8 million TEU by 6.4 percent. That compares with 2016’s 3.1 percent increase over 2015.

The year set an all-time monthly record of 1.8 million TEU in August, and included five of only seven months when imports have hit 1.7 million TEU or higher.

January 2018 is forecast at 1.67 million TEU, down 0.5 percent from January 2017; February at 1.6 million TEU, up 11.6 percent from last year; March at 1.5 million TEU, down 2 percent, and April at 1.66 million TEU, up 3.6 percent. The February and March percentages are skewed because of changes in when Asian factories close for Lunar New Year each year.

The import numbers come as NRF is forecasting that 2017 retail sales will grow between 3.2 and 3.8 percent over 2016 and that this year’s holiday sales will grow between 3.6 and 4 percent. Cargo volume does not correlate directly with sales because only the number of containers is counted, not the value of the cargo inside, but nonetheless provides a barometer of retailers’ expectations.

“As we close out 2017, we feel very good about the events of the year,” Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said. “We expect the coming six months to continue to grow, although at a reduced rate on a year-on-year basis. The second half of 2018 will be weaker than the first half, but recession is not on the horizon.”

Global Port Tracker, which is produced for NRF by the consulting firm Hackett Associates, covers the U.S. ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma on the West Coast; New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades and Miami on the East Coast, and Houston on the Gulf Coast. The report is free to NRF retail members, and subscription information is available at www.nrf.com/PortTracker or by calling (202) 783-7971. Subscription information for non-members can be found at www.globalporttracker.com.

NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and Internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs — 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy.

Posted December 8, 2017

Source: The National Retail Federation/Hackett Associates

Baldwin Expands Global Platform With The Acquisition Of QuadTech

ST. LOUIS — December 8, 2017 — Baldwin Technology Company Inc. — a process automation solutions provider of consumables and services for the print, packaging, textile and corrugated industries — has acquired QuadTech Inc. from its parent company, Quad/Graphics. With this acquisition, Baldwin adds all of QuadTech’s highly regarded technology and strategic locations across the Americas, Europe, China, Japan and India.

QuadTech is a global leader in the design and manufacture of control systems that help commercial, newspaper, packaging and publication gravure printers improve their performance and productivity. Headquartered in Sussex, Wis., QuadTech maintains a worldwide network of sales and service operations, and sells automated systems in more than 100 countries.

Baldwin will strategically unite QuadTech with two of its existing divisions — Web Printing Controls and PC Industries — creating a global platform that will operate as Baldwin Vision Systems. The resulting combination of businesses and technology will represent the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio available for print process automation, inspection and related services. Karl Fritchen, current QuadTech President, will lead the new Baldwin segment, which brings together the best and brightest global talent and capabilities in the industry. Product technologies will span closed-loop automation for registration, inking, color management, web handling and 100 percent inspection for the commercial, newspaper, labels, packaging, converting and publication gravure industries.

“The combination of products and expertise held within both companies will enable us to reach areas of the market we were unable to reach individually,” commented Fritchen. “From an international operations and market perspective, each party’s strengths are highly complementary. This is definitely a situation where we can accomplish much more together than we could have as independent companies.”

“QuadTech will serve as a catalyst for the formation of our new Baldwin Vision Systems segment, which will greatly enhance Baldwin’s ability to provide an even more comprehensive automation portfolio for our customers around the world,” said Brent Becker, President and CEO of Baldwin. “Together, we provide our customers an unmatched portfolio in commercial and newspaper automation, and I am very excited about the additional capabilities we will gain in the packaging markets. The work QuadTech has done recently on color within the packaging market clearly places us as the industry leader, and we have aggressive plans to build upon that position. I fully expect that our combined global presence, coupled with a new tiered product offering, will position the company to further satisfy our customers’ needs in an even larger geographical area.”

QuadTech is Baldwin’s fifth acquisition since joining the BW Forsyth Partners family of companies in 2012, and the fourth completed in 2017.

“We are thrilled to partner with the QuadTech team, as this investment underscores our continued commitment to a strategy that blends organic and acquisition growth to enhance our global footprint, advance the technology and service we can deliver to our customers, and cultivate our unique culture of care and collaboration,” said Kyle Chapman, Founder and Managing Director of BW Forsyth Partners. “We will continue to support Baldwin’s strategy execution, as the team seeks opportunities to expand the company’s reach into new industries and new geographic markets, increasing solutions for customers.”

Posted December 8, 2017

Source: Baldwin Technology Company Inc.

Pittsburgh’s CleanCare Recertified Hygienically Clean

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — December 8, 2017 — CleanCare of Pittsburgh has again achieved Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification, reflecting its commitment to best management practices (BMPs) in laundering as verified by on-site inspection and its capability to produce hygienically clean textiles as quantified by ongoing microbial testing.

CleanCare was first certified in 2014. Recertification confirms the organization’s continuing dedication to infection prevention, compliance with recognized industry standards and processing healthcare textiles using BMPs as described in its quality assurance documentation, a focal point for Hygienically Clean inspectors’ evaluation. The independent, third-party inspection must also confirm essential evidence that:

  • Employees are properly trained and protected;
  • Managers understand regulatory requirements;
  • OSHA-compliant; and
  • Physical plant operates effectively.

To achieve certification initially, laundries pass three rounds of outcome-based microbial testing, indicating that their processes are producing Hygienically Clean Healthcare textiles and zero presence of yeast, mold and harmful bacteria. They also must pass a facility inspection. To maintain their certification, they must pass quarterly testing to ensure that as laundry conditions change, such as water quality, textile fabric composition and wash chemistry, laundered product quality is consistently maintained. Re-inspection occurs every two to three years.

This process eliminates subjectivity by focusing on outcomes and results that verify textiles cleaned in these facilities meet appropriate hygienically clean standards and BMPs for hospitals, surgery centers, medical offices, nursing homes and other medical facilities.

Hygienically Clean Healthcare certification acknowledges laundries’ effectiveness in protecting healthcare operations by verifying quality control procedures in linen, uniform and facility services operations related to the handling of textiles containing blood and other potentially infectious materials.

Certified laundries use processes, chemicals and BMPs acknowledged by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, American National Standards Institute and others. Introduced in 2012, Hygienically Clean Healthcare brought to North America the international cleanliness standards for healthcare linens and garments used worldwide by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services and the European Committee for Standardization.

Objective experts in epidemiology, infection control, nursing and other healthcare professions work with Hygienically Clean launderers to ensure the certification continues to enforce the highest standards for producing clean healthcare textiles.

“Congratulations to CleanCare on their recertification,” said Joseph Ricci, TRSA president and CEO. “This achievement proves their ongoing commitment to infection prevention and that their laundry takes every step possible to prevent human illness.”

Posted December 8, 2017

Source: TRSA

Orion Engineered Carbons Announces New Specialty Carbon Black Production Line In Korea

SENNINGERBERG, Luxembourg — December 7, 2017 — Orion Engineered Carbons, a worldwide supplier of specialty and high-performance carbon black, announced today that it has completed construction of a new carbon black production line at its plant in Yeosu, South Korea, to produce specialty products. The line started production on November 23, and has begun commercial sales.

“This new line in Yeosu will produce premium grades of specialty carbon black for demanding customer applications such as automotive coatings, engineered plastics, printing inks and adhesives & sealants,” said Jack Clem, Orion’s CEO “It is another step in Orion Engineered Carbons’ ongoing transition to higher value added products for specialty and technically demanding rubber applications.”

The Yeosu Plant has also just completed a major upgrade to a Technical Rubber carbon black production line. This line too is back in commercial production.

These projects are major components of the consolidation of the Bupyeong [Incheon] Plant into the Yeosu facility. The transition is on track to be completed by July 2018.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: Orion Engineered Carbons S.A.

Avenue Stores Announces Key Additions Of Respected Industry Veterans Nancy Toth Viall And Stephen Silbaugh To Senior Management Team

ROCHELLE PARK, N.J. — December 7, 2017 — Avenue Stores LLC, which operates the Avenue® brand of women’s fashion apparel, announced today a newly strengthened senior team with the additions of fashion retail veterans Nancy Toth Viall and Stephen Silbaugh as chief merchandising officer and chief marketing officer, respectively. Both executives assumed their new roles in November and report directly to Avenue CEO Liz Williams. These leadership enhancements were made in keeping with the Company’s broader strategy to continually focus on growing its brand and increasing its customer base by offering the very best plus-size styles and fit to customers across all channels.

“We are delighted to welcome Nancy and Stephen to the Avenue management team. Their deep expertise in fashion and retail will be invaluable as we work toward strengthening our position as a leader in the plus-size women’s apparel industry,” Williams stated. “These exceptional leaders exemplify our efforts to refine our organizational structure to ensure we are strategically aligned to bring the most value to our customers and maximize growth opportunities.”

Silbaugh directs Avenue’s Marketing team as it continues to evolve and deepen the Avenue brand’s connection with its customers. As shopping preferences shift, he will play an important role in providing customers a seamless and engaging experience across all channels and touch points in order to build loyalty, traffic and increased sales.

Silbaugh brings more than 25 years of top-tier marketing and retail experience from leadership roles held at L Brands, Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors and AT&T. He has extensive experience in women-focused brands. Prior to joining Avenue, Steve most recently served as Chief Brand Officer for Brookstone Inc. He holds a B.A. degree in Math and Economics from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, and an M.A. degree from the same university in Economics. He also studied Marketing at the Executive Education program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business.

Viall leads Avenue’s Merchandising team and is responsible for driving the Company’s overall product strategies to meet and exceed customer expectations while setting the course for growth with current and new customers.

Viall brings more than 30 years of retail merchant experience to Avenue with depth in merchandising, design, and product development in women’s apparel. She has held roles at May Department Stores, Casual Corner, and Talbots, where she most recently served as SVP/GMM of Merchandising and Design/Product Development. She holds a B.S. degree in Business and Marketing and Textiles from the University of Rhode Island.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: Avenue Stores

Lincoln International Represents Alleson Athletic In A Sale To Badger Sportswear, A Portfolio Company Of CCMP Capital Advisors

NEW YORK CITY — December 7, 2017 — Lincoln International, a global mid-market investment bank, is pleased to announce that Alleson Athletic has been acquired by Badger Sportswear, a portfolio company of CCMP Capital Advisors.

Alleson Athletic is a North American supplier of in-stock and custom sublimated athletic apparel and game uniforms. Alleson’s product assortment spans all major sports categories, and the company goes to market under a wide variety of premier corporate-owned and licensed brands, including Alleson, ChromaGear, Under Armour, New Balance and the NBA/WNBA. Alleson’s products are sold primarily through leading athletic apparel distributors and an extensive network of over 4,000 independent team dealers. Founded in 1933 and headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., Alleson leads the market in the use of sublimation technology and is widely known throughout the industry for its innovative designs and manufacturing expertise and flexibility.

Alleson CEO Todd Levine commented: “Alleson was founded by my great-grandfather and has been a part of my family for generations. I am so glad that we chose Lincoln to walk us through the difficult and sometimes emotional process of selling a family business. The Lincoln team had a strong understanding of the apparel sector and was deeply engaged in the day-to-day details of the transaction. Lincoln provided us with excellent advice and a great partner in Badger Sportswear. I am excited to see this partnership take our company to the next level!”

Lincoln acted as the exclusive investment banking representative of Alleson, working closely with the company’s management team and shareholders to establish the new partnership. This included providing advisory expertise and managing the preparatory, marketing, negotiation and due diligence phases of the transaction. The sale of Alleson demonstrates Lincoln’s strong track record in the apparel sector, as well as the consumer soft goods category.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: Lincoln International LLC

Retailers Urge Swift Confirmation Of McAleenan To Lead Customs Agency 

WASHINGTON — December 7, 2017 — The National Retail Federation today welcomed the Senate Finance Committee’s approval of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan’s nomination to serve as the permanent head of the agency, and urged the Senate to move swiftly on his confirmation.

“We’re pleased to see Mr. McAleenan’s nomination for this important position finally moving through the process,” said NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French. “As major importers, retailers rely on CBP to facilitate legitimate commerce and enforce our trade laws, which is essential to our nation’s global competitiveness. Mr. McAleenan has the proven leadership and experience needed to continue overseeing these critical responsibilities, and we urge the Senate to move swiftly on his confirmation.”

Earlier this year, NRF sent a letter to members of the Finance Committee urging full support for McAleenan’s nomination. Retailers view CBP as a vital partner in their global supply chains and work closely with the agency on multiple fronts to improve supply chain security and trade enforcement as well as movement of goods across borders.

NRF is the world’s largest retail trade association, representing discount and department stores, home goods and specialty stores, Main Street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from the United States and more than 45 countries. Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer, supporting one in four U.S. jobs — 42 million working Americans. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, retail is a daily barometer for the nation’s economy.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: The National Retail Federation (NRF)

Rice University Researchers — Rules For Superconductivity Mirrored In ‘Excitonic Insulator’

RICE1207_EXCITONIC
Rice’s “topological excitonic insulators” are made of sheets of semiconductors (top) that become insulators at a critical temperature around 10 kelvins. At the critical point, a superfluid quantum liquid of excitons — pairs of negatively charged electrons (blue dots) and positively charged electron holes (red dots) — forms inside the devices (bottom) and electricity ceases to pass through them. (Image courtesy of R. Du/Rice University)

HOUSTON — December 7, 2017 — Device’s braided qubits could form component of topological quantum computer. Rice University physicists dedicated to creating the working components of a fault-tolerant quantum computer have succeeded in creating a previously unseen state of matter.

Rice’s “topological excitonic insulators” are made of sheets of semiconductors (top) that become insulators at a critical temperature around 10 kelvins. At the critical point, a superfluid quantum liquid of excitons — pairs of negatively charged electrons (blue dots) and positively charged electron holes (red dots) — forms inside the devices (bottom) and electricity ceases to pass through them. (Image courtesy of R. Du/Rice University)

The “topological excitonic insulator” was observed in tests at Rice by an international team from the United States and China. The researchers report their findings this week in the journal Nature Communications. Their device could potentially be used in a topological quantum computer, a type of quantum computer that stores information in quantum particles that are “braided” together like knots that are not easily broken. These stable, braided “topological” quantum bits, or topological qubits, could overcome one of the primary limitations of quantum computing today: Qubits that are nontopological easily “decohere” and lose the information they are storing.

Conventional computers use binary data, information that is stored as ones or zeros. Thanks to the quirks of quantum mechanics, qubits can represent both ones, zeros and a third state that’s both a one and a zero at the same time.

This third state can be used to speed up computation, so much so that a quantum computer with just a few dozen qubits could finish some computations as quickly as a microchip with a billion binary transistors.

Rice 1207_EXCITONIC2
Rui-Rui Du (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

In the new study, Rice physicist Rui-Rui Du and former Rice graduate student Lingjie Du (no relation) collaborated with researchers from Rice, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences to create excitonic insulators made of tiny slivers of ultrapure, stacked semiconductors. The devices, which are no more than 100 microns wide, contain a sheet of indium arsenide atop a sheet of gallium antimony. When cooled in a bath of liquid helium to a critically low temperature around 10 kelvins, a superfluid quantum liquid forms inside the devices and electricity ceases to pass through them.

“This is very much like the process in a superconductor, where you have electrons that are attracted to one another to form pairs that flow without resistance,” said Rui-Rui Du, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice and a researcher at the Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM). “In our case, electrons pair with positively charged ‘electron holes’ to create a superfluid with a net charge of zero.”

Lingjie Du, now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, said, “It’s a collective effect, so to an outside observer the system conducts electricity normally until it’s cooled to the critical temperature, where it suddenly changes phase to become a perfect insulator.”

Rice1207_EXCITONIC3
Lingjie Du

To prove that the device was the long-sought excitonic insulator, the team first had to show the fluid was a quantum condensate. That task fell to Xinwei Li, a graduate student in the laboratory of RCQM researcher Junichiro Kono. Li and Kono, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rice, shined terahertz waves through the devices as they were cooled to the critical temperature and found that the samples absorbed terahertz energy in two distinct bands — a signature of quantum condensation.

Showing the device was topological involved testing for electrical conduction in a one-dimensional band around their perimeter.

“This novel property of the edge state is the thing that people are very interested in,” Rui-Rui Du said. “This edge state has no electrical resistance, and you get conduction in which electrons are tied to their spin moment. If they have one type of spin, they go clockwise and if they have the other they go counterclockwise.”

Braiding circuits built on these opposing electron streams would have inherent topological signatures that could be used to form fault-tolerant qubits.

“The other beauty of this is that the same principles still apply at room temperature,” Rui-Rui Du said. “There are atomically layered materials such as tungsten disulfide that could potentially be used to create this same effect at room temperature, provided they could be made in pure enough form.”

Additional co-authors include Wenkai Lou and Kai Chang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Gerard Sullivan of Teledyne Scientific Imaging in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The research was supported by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Science Foundation of China. Some experiments were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by NSF and the state of Florida.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: Rice University’s Office of Public Affairs

Superior Health Linens Signs Long Term Contract With Mayo Clinic And Expands Healthcare Linen Alliance Reach

DUBOIS, Pa. — December 7, 2017 — The Healthcare Linen Alliance announced today that one of its founding members, Superior Health Linens, acquired Textile Care Services a healthcare and hospitality linen processor based in Rochester, Minn. Both organizations are recognized throughout the Upper Midwest as growing healthcare laundry and linen services companies who provide industry-leading products and customer service.

With this acquisition, Superior now processes 170 million pounds of laundry annually, serving the Mayo Clinic as well as local hotels in Minnesota. TCS was founded in 1918 as a partnership between the Mayo Clinic and the Kahler Hotel to provide linen for both organizations. This purchase by Superior Health Linens expands the company’s coverage which now has an even larger footprint serving healthcare providers across Kentucky, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Another benefit is the significant back-up processing power the company now offers with service across these four states. The deal arrived on the heels of TCS signing a 20 year agreement to serve the Mayo Clinic.

Often acquisitions are accompanied by a turnaround in the staff; however Superior Health President and CEO Scott Reppert opted to rehire the entire team of 230 at TCS. “When I asked the employees if they were willing to give 100%, they said no…but they were willing to give 120%” said Reppert. “Of course, that answer was followed with applause all around. We have over 900 families counting on us for their livelihood and we have a strong commitment to our customers as well as ensuring the future success of our team.”

The Healthcare Linen Alliance includes Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service Corp., Emerald Textiles, Logan’s Healthcare Linen Systems, Paris Healthcare Linen Services, Superior Health Linens and Textile Care Services. The group serves a large area covering Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State, West Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as Canada.

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: The Healthcare Linen Alliance

Tegra Names Pamela DeNichilo And Ed Groce To Lead Customer Focused Team Aimed At Building Long-term, Strategic Client Partnerships

ATLANTA — December 7, 2017 — Tegra LLC, an apparel manufacturing and supply chain provider, announced today the hiring of Pamela DeNichilo as chief product development officer and the promotion of Ed Groce as chief customer officer. The changes to Tegra’s senior customer-focused management team are part of an overall strategy to position the company for continued growth and acceleration of the development of its manufacturing platforms.

DeNichilo will oversee all development, product innovation, costing and sample development in the United States and Central America. She recently served as vice president, Product Development & Innovation for Mast Industries/Victoria’s Secret. Prior to that, she held senior level product & development positions at Gap Inc.

Groce will lead Tegra’s customer strategy, account management and overall execution to build integrated capabilities and value added customer programs. Groce most recently led Tegra’s Central American operations with oversight of five facilities and more than 10,000 employees in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Prior to joining Tegra, Groce served as vice president and COO of Art FX in Norfolk, Va., and president of Decotex International. Groce and DeNichilo will work closely to ensure effective execution and will report directly to Steve Cochran, Tegra CEO.

“One of Tegra’s competitive advantages is the diversity of the products and programs that we offer our customers allowing us to build strategic relationships,” Cochran said. “Pamela and Ed’s senior leadership experience and reputations for excellence will be invaluable to us as we continue to strengthen our capabilities for our valued apparel and retail customers.”

Posted December 7, 2017

Source: Tegra LLC

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