COLUMBIA, S.C. — January 25, 2016 — 3i Products Inc., a company that specializes in the manufacturing and distribution of indoor and outdoor cushions and pillows, is establishing operations in Lancaster County. The $3 million investment is expected to create 100 new jobs in Lancaster, S.C. over the next five years.

A newly established firm, 3i Products has acquired an existing 27,000-square-foot building, located on more than 15 acres off Chester Highway in Lancaster to house its new operations. Providing the company with close proximity to Interstate 77, the facility will allow 3i Products to efficiently serve its growing customer base.

Anticipated to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2016, hiring for the 100 new positions is expected to begin in April 2016. Those looking to join the 3i Products team should contact ReadySC at www.sctechjobs.com.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development has approved a $150,000 Rural Infrastructure Fund grant to Lancaster County to assist with the cost of real property improvements related to the project. Additionally, AdvanceSC committed a $50,000 grant to Lancaster County to assist with building upfit in support of the project.

“3i Products is very excited about our move to the Lancaster area and looks forward to opening our new facility and bringing new jobs and growth to the area. We appreciate all the work of the local members of the County, Governor Nikki Haley and her team in the State of South Carolina for making this project a reality.” –3i Products, Inc. Chairman of the Board Tim Chen

“Each time a company decides to move here, it reaffirms the fact that Team South Carolina’s approach to attracting businesses and building a world-class workforce is working. We’re excited to welcome 3i Products to the South Carolina family and to celebrate the 100 new jobs this investment will bring to Lancaster County.” –Gov. Nikki Haley

“South Carolina’s positive business climate and excellent workforce continues to attract businesses of all types to our borders. This includes newly-established firms, like 3i Products, Inc., which has chosen Lancaster County for its new facility, bringing 100 new jobs to the local community.” –Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt

“We welcome 3i to Lancaster County and to South Carolina. We are all very excited to see existing structures return to productive use and appreciate 3i’s investment in capital and in putting Lancaster’s citizens to work. We are also appreciative of the combined efforts of the city, state and county to help provide the infrastructure needs to make this investment possible.” –Lancaster County Council Chairman Bob Bundy

Five Fast Facts

3i Products is establishing operations in Lancaster County.
The newly-established firm will manufacture and distribute indoor and outdoor cushions and pillows.
3i Products has acquired an existing 27,000-square-foot building located on 15+ acres off of Chester Highway in Lancaster to house its new operations.
Hiring for the 100 new positions is expected to begin in April 2016.
Those looking to join the 3i Products team should contact ReadySC at www.sctechjobs.com.

Posted January 26, 2016

Source: South Carolina Department of Commerce

WASHINGTON — January 21, 2016 — The Walmart Foundation and the U.S. Conference of Mayors today announced this year’s U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund grant recipients at the 84th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C.

Five leading research and academic institutions were awarded a total of $2.84 million in grants by the fund for their work focused on innovations in textile manufacturing. The fund, which focuses on the development of domestic manufacturing with a specific goal of advancing the production or assembly of consumer products in the U.S., will provide a total of $10 million in grants over the course of five years. This is the second round of funding under this grant.

The grant recipients were selected for their ability to address two key challenges that currently present barriers to increased domestic manufacturing. These challenges are:

• Reducing the cost of textile manufacturing, including home textiles and apparel, in the U.S. by addressing obstacles throughout production.
• Improving common manufacturing processes with broad application to many types of consumer products.

“Through these grants we hope to help remove the barriers to revitalizing and growing U.S. apparel manufacturing, while creating more sustainable production processes,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation and chief sustainability officer for Walmart. “The U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund is part of Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s broader commitment to foster new economic growth and opportunity and create stronger communities.”

“America’s mayors work every day to create good jobs for the people who live in our cities and metro areas. The five projects we’ve recognized today will lead to manufacturing jobs in their respective cities and eventually, across the country,” said Tom Cochran, CEO and executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “We are proud to partner with Walmart and the Walmart Foundation to support these important efforts.”

The 2016 Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Fund grant winners are:

• Clemson University for energy and effluent reduction through innovative dyeing of polyester fabrics
• Oregon State University for environmentally conscious dyeing of fabrics using continuous digital printing and drying of biopigment inks
• University of Texas at Austin for on-loom fabric defect inspection using contact image sensors
• North Carolina State University for developing a non-stop tying-in process/approach to improve weaving efficiency
• Cornell University for recycling post-consumer textile waste and a raw material substitute for new textiles

Support for the Innovation Fund is part of Walmart’s broader commitment to help revitalize U.S. manufacturing. In January 2013, Walmart announced a commitment to buy an additional $250 billion in products that support U.S. jobs by 2023.

These commitments represent a significant investment that will help accelerate the pace of U.S. manufacturing. By making production in the U.S. more cost-effective and efficient, the global retailer believes it can bring American consumers more American-made products and ultimately create jobs in communities across the country.

Posted January 25, 2016

Source: Walmart

HANNOVER, Germany and CHICAGO, Ill. — January 21, 2016 — DOMOTEX 2016 drew to a close with outstanding results, earning its place among the best-ever stagings of the world’s flagship fair for carpets and floor coverings. With 1,441 exhibitors from 59 countries and 45,000 trade visitors from more than 100 nations, DOMOTEX delivered fresh momentum for the international floor coverings industry, serving as a powerful driver of sales, trends and innovations.

“Whatever aspect you choose to look at — exhibitor lineup, visitor turnout, international coverage, the ratio of decision-makers present — exhibitors and visitors all attest to the event’s top performance, underscoring its ever greater appeal for the sector,” remarked Dr. Jochen Köckler, the Deutsche Messe Managing Board member in charge of DOMOTEX, on the last day of the show. “DOMOTEX has demonstratively enhanced its reputation as an unrivalled source of momentum for the global floor coverings industry.”

Visitors from around the world found all the latest trends and innovations on display in 12 different exhibition halls, setting the stage for lively deal-making, order-placing and fruitful dialogue with business associates. Out of a total of some 27,500 visitors from abroad, around 50 percent came from EU countries, with another 25 percent coming from Asia and eight percent from the Americas. There was a notable increase in attendance from Asia, which went up by 29 percent. “DOMOTEX is the definitive meeting-place for the global floor coverings industry,” said Köckler, adding: “No other event in the world attracts so many high-caliber decision-makers.”

Highly International Event Stimulates New Business

The international scope and reach of DOMOTEX is key to its reputation as a powerful driver of new business. “DOMOTEX is the central hub for the floor coverings industry – on a global scale. All the important players from every continent are represented here at DOMOTEX. That translates into outstanding business prospects at the fair,” commented Guido Schulte, Managing Director of MeisterWerke Schulte GmbH, based in Rüthen-Meiste, Germany.

Paul De Cock, President of the UNILIN Flooring Division in Wielsbeke, Belgium, also praised the event: “DOMOTEX is a key platform for our international business. Our stand attracted a steady stream of visitors, resulting in lively business and lots of purchase orders. We are delighted with the outcome of the fair and feel upbeat about the business year ahead.”

Dr. Ali Ipektchi of IPEK – A. Ipektchi GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg was also delighted with the event: “As exhibitors of Persian carpets and rugs, we see DOMOTEX as the most important international business event. This has been a very successful fair for us. We took lots of orders and engaged in many promising talks with business partners and potential customers. At this year’s show, Persian carpets and area rugs enjoyed even greater prominence than last year. The lifting of the trade embargo on Iranian goods is very good news indeed, as relaxed and positive business relations can only have a beneficial effect on our industry.”

High Caliber Of Visitors

Exhibitors were delighted with the high level of competence and decision-making authority among the show’s attendees, with more than 72 percent of them being top managers who play a role in their companies’ purchasing decisions. The majority of visitors at this year’s DOMOTEX were retail and wholesale buyers (13,500 and 11,400, respectively). The fair also attracted architects, interior designers and contractors (3,700), as well as 9,400 skilled tradespeople.

Pacesetter For Innovations

DOMOTEX impressively confirmed the floor covering industry’s dynamic power and innovative spirit. “In each and every segment – carpets, parquet and laminate flooring, designer floors, machine-woven carpets and hand-made rugs – the international floor coverings industry sported a stunning and highly innovative array of patterns, materials, shapes and colors, thus ideally positioning itself for the coming season,” observed Köckler.

Under the slogan “Tread on Me”, DOMOTEX invited visitors to “walk all over” the latest trends, including a wide range of natural-look rugs and carpets. This back-to-nature trend was evident both in the prominence of beige, brown, green and pastel hues and in the frequent use of landscape images. Many designers are actually designing products in anticipation of footprints being left on them, making them reminiscent of grass or soft earth when freshly walked upon. This natural look is also in demand for wood flooring. Shapes and textures can be mixed and matched to create a wide range of looks. The event also showcased innovative systems for quick and easy floor laying. Another hot trend is carpeting in the form of tiles and planks, with one highlight being designer floor coverings that almost perfectly replicate wood grains or tiles, while at the same time being comparatively easy to lay. The demand for sustainably manufactured products is also on the rise.

The Innovations@DOMOTEX showcase put a big spotlight on highly innovative floor coverings. The three Innovations@DOMOTEX areas proved highly popular among the show’s visitors, drawing special attention to 84 selected innovations in the categories textile and resilient floor coverings, parquet and laminate flooring and contemporary hand-made rugs. This made it easy for trade visitors to get a concise look at the sector’s hottest innovations, thus providing valuable orientation for the year ahead.

Other standout attractions included the Innovations@DOMOTEX Dialogues spotlighting key industry topics by means of presentations and panel discussions by and with top international designers like Piero Lissoni. The focus was on current design trends and advances for hotels, catering, offices, healthcare, shopping/retail and home interiors. User-centric Guided Tours provided in-depth coverage of the topics addressed, and featured innovations provided architects, interior designers and planners with a unique overview of the broad and varied range of floor coverings available today.

Another visitor magnet at DOMOTEX was the third edition of the Wood Flooring Summit. Targeted at the international parquet and laminate flooring sector, this special event was staged in Hall 9, where visitors were introduced to all the current trends, developments and new materials for parquet, laminate, cork, bamboo and outdoor floor coverings.

Meanwhile, Hall 7 was the “El Dorado” for parquet and laminate floor layers, interior decorators and painters. The “Skilled Trades Hub” featured a comprehensive exhibition and presentation program dedicated to real-world solutions for practitioners. Another strong drawing card was the European Interior Decorating Competition – an event held over two days and featuring top young interior decorators from Germany, Austria, South Tyrol and Switzerland, who impressed an appreciative audience with their skills. Recognizing the world’s best designer carpets in eight different categories, The Carpet Design Awards were also staged at DOMOTEX, featuring a prize which ranks as the highest international accolade for contemporary hand-made carpets.

The next DOMOTEX is scheduled for January 14-17, 2017.

Posted January 22, 2016

Source: Deutsche Messe AG 

WASHINGTON — January 20, 2016 — The National Council of Textile Organizations voted to formally support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement. The decision to support TPP came after an exhaustive analysis determined that NCTO’s principle objectives were met as part of the finalized terms of the agreement. These objectives include:

• A strong yarn forward rule of origin for the vast majority of textile and apparel products.
• Reasonable, multi-year tariff phase-outs for sensitive textile and apparel products.
• Terms that provided for the stability of the Western Hemisphere textile and apparel production chain.

“Due to the inclusion of Vietnam and other major textile and apparel exporting countries, the TPP agreement is the most significant trade policy initiative to confront the U.S. textile sector over the past 25 years,” stated Jeff Price, NCTO Chairman and President of the Specialty Fabrics Division at Milliken and Company. “As such, it was critical for our government to produce a final agreement that appropriately reflected the needs of U.S. textile manufacturers and the hundreds of thousands of workers we employ nationwide. We believe that the agreement concluded late last year in Atlanta meets our core objectives and is worthy of our full support.”
“No agreement is perfect, and certainly that is the case with TPP,” Price continued. “There were difficult trade-offs that we, as U.S. manufacturers, had to consider during this process, as is the case with any complicated negotiation. Nonetheless, this agreement is very sound in the essential elements that govern textile trade. We stated throughout the entire negotiating process that if our key objectives were met, NCTO would support the final agreement. Today, we are making good on that commitment to the U.S. government by pledging our support of TPP. With legislative review and action expected in 2016, NCTO looks forward to working with congressional leadership, the committees of jurisdiction, our supporters on Capitol Hill, and the Obama Administration on a path forward for TPP.”
“We extend our thanks to Ambassador Michael Froman and the entire U.S. negotiating team for their willingness to acknowledge our input throughout the TPP process,” Price concluded.

The U.S. textile and apparel industry is a significant contributor to the U.S. economy, producing over $70 billion in annual output and employing nearly 500,000 workers nationwide. In addition, the U.S. textile and apparel sector exported more than $24 billion in goods in 2014.

Posted January 22, 2016

Source: The National Council of Textile Organizations (NCTO)