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The Long, Hot Summer

By Jennifer Marks, editor-in-chief -- Home Textiles Today, 6/6/2005 12:00:00 AM

Summer's starting with a bang for Wal-Mart's home textiles suppliers, legions of whom boarded planes a few days ago for the retailer's product summit in Shanghai.

But that's just the beginning. There will be no lazy, hazy days of summer this year, no drifting through dog days. A short watch-list.

Whither WestPoint Stevens? The deadline to submit bids for the company falls later this week, and if all goes according to plan, on June 24 the bankruptcy court will approve the winning bid. Will Wilbur Ross — whose outlook is decidedly more long-term — prevail over Carl Icahn, who has sunk more money into ownership of the company's debt liens? Or will another contender emerge? It's going to be nail-biter.

The U.S./China set-to over textiles. Days after Beijing announced it would levy export tariffs on 81 more categories of textiles (most of them left unspecified), last week the government abruptly changed its mind. On this side of the hemisphere, it's unclear whether Washington's saber-rattling will extend beyond the 7 categories of apparel and fiber upon which it is already mulling safeguard protections. When will it all end? Maybe not until 2008, when by agreement such actions will no longer be allowed.

The Federated/May merger. Shareholders are set to vote on July 13. Although employees of both companies have been told no one will be sacked until March 2006, that doesn't mean the buying structure won't be reorganized sooner — especially on the May side. The merger isn't expected to close until the third quarter, at which point most of the spring business will already have been booked. The question dogging the industry in the meantime: How much open-to-buy will there be?

2006 market dates. Presumably, the industry will receive word sometime over the next couple of months about next year's dates from George Little Management, organizer of the New York Home Textiles Shows at the Javits Center, and the Home Fashions Products Association, whose 70 or so members range from the big mills to small suppliers. If either party is getting as many phone inquiries about the dates as we are, I'm sure they're anxious to pin down the dates.

Fall market frustration: The next New York Home Textiles Market is four months away, but many in industry are already fretting about how they will balance their appointments against their religious observations. Yom Kippur falls on Thursday, Oct. 13 — two days before the show opens at Javits, which traditionally marks the market's kick-off. Further, Sukkot begins the following Monday evening and requires the observant refrain from activities for the following two days.

All of which may serve to make the unofficial "August mini-market" busier than ever this year.

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