Worldview | Argentina Lures Back Global Fashion Brands

🇦🇷 Argentina is starting to lure back global fashion brands. Barbour is the latest of a growing number of brands entering, expanding or resuming operations in the South American country once described as being in a ‘perpetual’ economic crisis. In partnership with Olympea Group, Barbour’s new Buenos Aires store marks the British brand’s return to Argentina after more than a decade away. It follows Dolce & Gabbana’s Buenos Aires debut in the Patio Bullrich shopping centre, planned store openings by Victoria’s Secret and Decathlon and Mango’s deal with local franchisee Grimoldi to open later this year at Alto Palermo, a mall where more than a dozen global brands already have stores. For years, international retailers avoided Argentina as it grappled with hyperinflation, spiralling debt, repeated currency devaluations and import restrictions, but the country has shown tentative signs of stabilisation since president Javier Milei introduced trade liberalisation measures as part of his ‘shock therapy’ programme aimed at reviving the economy. Renewed interest in the market comes even as Argentina’s domestic apparel and textile industry faces one of its worst downturns in decades, battered by ultra-cheap imports — many sold through Chinese fast-fashion platforms — flooding the market. [Bloomberg Linea, Modaes, Reuters]

🇻🇪 Deadly earthquakes disrupt Venezuela’s retail sector. Non-essential retail activity has only partially resumed after a complete shutdown following last week’s double earthquakes. Key shopping centres in Caracas, including Sambil and Tolón Fashion Mall, and properties in other affected areas, such as La Guaira, Carabobo, Aragua and Yaracuy states were affected, with some locations closed for safety inspections and others operating on reduced schedules or serving as collection points for emergency supplies. Freddy Cohen, president of the Chamber of Shopping Centres, told local media that none of the country’s shopping centres reported injuries during the earthquakes. The disaster has killed at least 1,450 people, injured more than 3,100 and displaced more than 12,700, although a spokesperson for the UN’s International Organization for Migration told El Nuevo Herald that up to 6.76 million people could have been affected by the earthquakes. [Graciela Martin for BoF]

🇨🇳 Uyghur Human Rights Project flags new Chinese forced labour cotton risks. According to a report co-authored by UHRP research associate Elijah Pockell-Wilson, the risks of cotton textiles and apparel made in China using forced labour are shifting towards countries such as Australia and Japan as first-tier markets like the United States and Europe tighten regulation around the import of such products. The study estimates that in 2024 Australia imported around $4.82 billion in goods from sectors considered to have high exposure to Uyghur forced labour including cotton textiles and apparel, solar power, aluminium and chemicals. Japan’s imports from these sectors amounted to around $6.71 billion. China has always denied allegations of forced labour affecting Uyghur and other minority groups, most recently dismissing a United Nations report that expressed “deep concern” about “a persistent pattern of alleged state-imposed forced labour involving ethnic minorities across multiple provinces in China.” The UN experts stated that “in many cases, the coercive elements are so severe that they may amount to forcible transfer and/or enslavement as a crime against humanity.” [Sourcing Journal, United Nations]

🇮🇳 Amazon India targets expansion of its q-commerce service to 300 cities. The US e-commerce giant’s instant delivery service Amazon Now, which is currently available in around 100 cities across India, will treble its footprint, the company said without specifying a timeline. The quick commerce sector, which typically delivers within 10 minutes, has become highly competitive in the country with Amazon vying for space with other e-tailers’ proprietary services such as Flipkart’s Minutes as well as dedicated q-commerce firms like Swiggy, Zepto and Blinkit. Q-commerce apps have become increasingly popular channels to sell groceries, beauty products and even basic clothing items to middle class consumers in India’s cities. [Bloomberg]

🇬🇹 Guatemalan garment workers secure payout of $5.8 million. Washington-based watchdog The Worker Rights Consortium has facilitated payment of owed wages and severance to more than 750 workers at a factory that once supplied to US retail giant Target. “The WRC recognizes Sae-A’s positive action to restore the rights of the Koa Modas workers and uphold Sae-A’s and Target’s labor standards,” WRC said in a statement. “In doing so, Sae-A has joined other leading apparel companies like American Eagle Outfitters, Gildan and PVH, that have responded to violations documented by the WRC in their supply chains by using their own resources to pay workers money they were legally owed.” [Sourcing Journal, WRC]

🇮🇳 India seeks to extend its textile manufacturing footprint beyond major hubs. The government hopes to attract anchor investors to broaden production beyond the sector’s current centres of industry, namely Tirupur, Surat, Panipat and Ludhiana, to sites in Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Jharkhand states, under the production-linked incentive scheme for textiles. The announcement comes as ministers set out a roadmap for the country to achieve $100 billion in textile exports by 2030. Plans include a greater focus on product-market mix, value-added products, the diversification of markets and products, improved compliance with environmental and other sustainability standards and recommendations to improve the ease of doing business in India. [Economic Times]

🇿🇦 South African e-tailer Takealot Group’s revenue exceeds $1 billion. The Naspers-backed, Cape Town-based e-commerce major selling everything from electronics and toys to clothing and beauty products recorded a 19 percent increase in annual revenue in the year ended March 2026. The group postedadjusted earnings before ​interest and tax of $11 million during the period, marking its first year of aEBIT profitability after a loss of $13 million last year. Takealot Group operates its namesake e-commerce platform Takelot.com, which competes with Amazon in South Africa, and q-commerce delivery app Mr D. For Takealot.com, gross merchandise value and revenue increased by 15 percent and 19 percent respectively. [Reuters]

🇹🇷 Turkish manufacturer AVCI Global opens $10 million textile unit in Senegal. The Istanbul-based construction-to-energy conglomerate, which also manufactures fabrics and clothing, has launched a mill in the Diamniadio Industrial Zone near the Senegalese capital of Dakar. The mill represents the latest the phase in the group’s AVCI Industrie complex, which includes a garment factory for its Lazuma brand and is set to become a regional distribution hub for West Africa once the facilities are fully operational. [Fibre2Fashion, BoF Inbox]

🇦🇪 Dubai and Abu Dhabi firms gear up for the next Emiratisation deadline.On June 30, most United Arab Emirates companies are expected to have recorded a one percent increase in the number of UAE nationals in their skilled workforce, with a full-year requirement of a two percent increase by December when they should have met the cumulative 10 percent target. Emiratis currently account for around 11 percent of the UAE population, with most companies dominated by foreign nationals, a demographic reality the policy is meant to address. Mandatory Emiratisation quotas for much of the private sector were introduced in 2022, based on company size and type. [Arabian Business]

🇯🇴 Jordanian suppliers to Under Armour face US forced labour ban. The US Customs and Border Protection agency has banned imports from two garment factories run by the Needle Craft Group, one of the American sportswear giant’s biggest suppliers. The ban comes after overseas workers who were brought from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the Jordanian firm’s factories in Zarqa, outside Amman, were reportedly abused and exploited. Campaign group Labour Behind the Label first alerted the international media to the suicide of a worker at the group’s Fine Apparel factory in 2023. [The I Paper]

🇮🇳 India’s Grasim Industries appoints Sangeeta Tanwani as textiles CEO. The Aditya Birla Group-owned cement-to-chemicals giant has hired the company veteran who previously led the transformation of the Mumbai-based conglomerate’s traditional wear brand Pantaloons and worked across retail, FMCG and pharmaceuticals before joining the sprawling group. Grasim is a major producer of linen and wool fabrics through Jayashree Textiles and is one of India’s largest manufacturers of viscose filament yarn and cellulosic staple fibres. [Fibre2Fashion]

🇨🇳 Prada names Chinese band Transform Project as its brand ambassadors. The Italian luxury brand has partnered with the five male members of the band, Zhu Zhixin, Zhang Zeyu, Zhang Ji, Zuo Hang and Su Xinhao, to endorse its products. [BoF Inbox]