LATEST CROP RESEARCH

Those who took part in field tours traveled through 600 acres of land, including about 60 acres of cotton fields. They stopped along the way for informational presentations on research including irrigation and monitoring techniques, new varieties and planting dates, weed control and insect management, spokeswoman Ginger Rowsey said.

The event lasted from 8 a.m. to noon, with tours starting at 8:30 a.m. according to officials at the center, which is part of the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

Rowsey drove up the winding gravel road between 600 acres of land herself. Wilting, dark brown sunflowers line the right side of the road, and brown harvested corn leaves form the left side leading up to the cotton bolls. The gray and cloud-thick sky served as a backdrop for the agriculture institute's leading research, and the 600 acres of land as classroom space.

"It is an outdoor classroom really, and it allows farmers the chance to see up close and personally the different varieties, different planting dates, different weed and pest management techniques," Rowsey said.

The agriculture institute's farm is different from traditional farms because it is operated largely for educational purposes.

"Instead of just reading about it in a book or looking at it on the Internet, they can actually see it in person, so that's why we do this day," Rowsey said.

Experts showcased the new cotton varieties so farmers would be able to see which crops were doing best and how to increase profits on their farms, said Chris Main, extension cotton specialist for the University of Tennessee.

The most useful information has been row crop weed specialist Larry Steckel's seminar in controlling herbicide-resistant weeds because weed control is one of the biggest problems in farm maintenance, Main said.

Loyalty Lift Retail Sales

Apparel business has grown to become highly competitive, and retailers have to mull strategies. Having a competitive edge in the business world is vital. Rather than relaying on other tricks of trade, retailers prefer to establish a one-to-one relationship with their customers to improve their sales performance. With an intention to enhance their customer base significantly, retailers seek for Loyalty Programs to gain direct access to their customers. It enables them to identify, communicate, and market to the end users, and also maintain the distributor relationships at the same time.

As per a recent market survey, considering their buying attitudes, apparel shoppers can be classified into three main categories. Fashion forward customers, looking for latest style clothing, conservative customers who prefer a traditional look in their garments, and value driven consumers who give more preference to value and comfort comparatively over style. Fashion forward customers comprise of 16% of the population, while conservative customers make 34%, and the remaining 50% is of value driven customers. Of this, conservative consumers are more motivated by the loyalty programs, and store credit cards.

A survey states that 76% of the retailers, and 75% of the shoppers are engaged in one loyalty program. One third of the customers are involved in multiple loyalty programs. Shoppers stop claims that almost 60% of its sales are from loyalty members. Many kinds of loyalty programs are followed. As customers bought apparels, they earned points that can be redeemed as merchandise rewards, or travel. Points can also be accumulated to acquire a more valuable reward later on. Special promotions are also offered during days important to the consumer such as anniversary, birthday etc. A top-up discount based on the frequency of visits can also be offered.

Brands also need to foster the loyalty of their customers so as to retain them, especially during tough times. Notable brands such as Westside, Adidas, Levis, and Spencers Retail have managed to keep their customer base intact through their loyalty programs, delivering immediate value, preference and personal significance. Product launches planned intermittently, and innovative loyalty programs facilitated them to ride the tide during recession.

Loyalty programs help to create an emotional bonding, thereby resulting in a life long customer relationship. They have gained immense popularity in the past decade. This is mainly due to the culture of entitlement, wherein the customers believe that they deserve a special treatment over the normal visitors due to their frequency in visiting the retailer. Retailers have learnt to smartly capitalize this attitude of the customers through their creative thoughts. It might cost them a little, but brings forth goodwill, and ultimately resulting in the long term relationship with them. They are now a key to revenue growth of any business. Thus, it can be precisely called as a Loyalty craze.

GENIUS

Eco-friendly home fashion brand Portico Home & Spa is introducing its GENIUS collection of luxuriously soft and breathable sheets made with a unique 60/40 percent blend of organic cotton and TENCEL MICRO during the HFPA New York Home Fashions Market September 13-17 at its showroom at 230 Fifth Avenue, Suite 1910, in New York City.

Portico is one of the only companies to have introduced such products to the North American market.

This collection is available in fig, stone, earth, and cloud colors and is perfect for homes or hotels interested in being stylish as well as environmentally conscious. TENCEL, a fine cellulose-based fiber made in a closed loop processing system, is known for being soft, wrinkle resistant, absorbent, and durable.Buyers will also be visiting a separate Portico showroom at the United Feather & Down offices at 1071 Avenue of the Americas featuring Portico’s Essential Bedding collection of comforters, pillows, blankets, and mattress pads made with 100 percent organic cotton.

Portico Home & Spa launched its first bed (blankets, coverlets, decorative pillows, duvets, shams, and sheets), and bath ( bath robes, rugs, towels) collection of items made with organic cotton at the Fall 2009 HFPA show.

This resulted in highly successful sales in both the United States and Canada. Portico anticipates sales in over 500 doors, more than double the current number, in major retailers in both countries by the end of 2010.

Noted author and green living expert Summer Rayne Oakes consults on the lines and serves as the Portico brand ambassador.

Textile Recycling

These days the 'rag and bone' men are textile reclamation businesses, which collect textiles for reuse (often abroad), and send material to the 'wiping' and 'flocking' industry and fibres to be reclaimed to make new garments. Textiles made from both natural and man-made fibres can be recycled.

It is estimated that more than 1 million tons of textiles are thrown away every year, with most of this coming from household sources. Textiles make up about 3% by weight of a household bin. At least 50% of the textiles we throw away are recyclable, however, the proportion of textile wastes reused or recycled annually in the US is only around 20%.

Although the majority of textile waste originates from household sources, waste textiles also arise during yarn and fabric manufacture, garment-making processes and from the retail industry. These are termed post-industrial waste, as opposed to the post-consumer waste which goes to jumble sales and charity shops. Together they provide a vast potential for recovery and recycling.

Recovery and recycling provide both environmental and economic benefits. Textile recovery:
Reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibers) products will not decompose, while woolen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.

Reduces pressure on virgin resources.
Aids the balance of payments as we import fewer materials for our needs.
Results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibers do not have to be transported from abroad.
Reclaiming fiber avoids many of the polluting and energy intensive processes needed to make textiles from virgin materials, including: -
Savings on energy consumption when processing, as items do not need to be re-dyed or scoured.
Less effluent, as unlike raw wool, it does not have to be thoroughly washed using large volumes of water.
Reduction of demand for dyes and fixing agents and the problems caused by their use and manufacture.

How, what and where of recycling textiles:
The majority of post-consumer textiles are currently collected by charities like The Salvation Army, Good Will and Chalk. Some charities, for example Good Will and The Salvation Army, sort collected material selling it on to merchants in the appropriate sectors.
Some postindustrial waste is recycled 'in-house', usually in the yarn and fabric manufacturing sector. The rest, aside from going to landfill or incineration, is sent to merchants.
Collection Method's:
At present the consumer has the option of putting textiles in 'clothes banks', taking them to charity shops or having them picked up for a donation drive.

The Salvation Army is the largest operator of textile banks in the US. On average, each of these banks is estimated to collect about six tons of textiles per year. Combined with door-to-door collections, The Salvation Army's textile recycling operations account for the processing of in excess of 17,000 tons of clothing a year. Clothes are given to the homeless, sold in charity shops or sold in developing countries in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and parts of Eastern Europe. Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes, and any un-wearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled and used as factory wiping cloths.

Take your used clothes to a textile bank. Contact the recycling officer in your local authority if there are no banks in your area and ask why; they may collect textiles through other means. Alternatively you can take used clothing to local charity shops.

Give old clothes/shoes/curtains/handbags etc. to jumble sales. Remember to tie shoes together: part of the 6% of textiles which is wastage for merchants are single shoes.

Buy second-hand clothes - you can often pick up unusual period pieces! If bought from a charity shop, it will also benefit a charity.

Buy things you are likely to wear a long time - a dedicated follower of fashion can also be a green one if items are chosen carefully.

Look for recycled content in the garments you buy. This should be on the label, though at present there is no conventional marking scheme and some companies do not always advertise the recycled content.

Buy cloth wipers instead of disposable paper products as the product can be used repeatedly.