Next level is to inject new features:
The call for eco-friendly products has been getting louder for years now and the pandemic has only accelerated the process of new fibre development or adding more features to existing fibres. Fibre2fashion spoke to some brand advocates of the fibre industry about the kind of money their companies are putting aside for Research and Development work.
Florian Heubrandner: We have invested over €50 million into our R&D programmes and are dedicated to finding ways to drive further industry innovations and supporting the ecosystem to become more sustainable. For us, the bottom line is that these investments benefit our customers because they can optimally differentiate themselves from the competition by using innovative Tencel fibre products to make a difference.
Marina Crnoja-Cosic: We have been investing a significant proportion of our turnover in the development of new fibres and applications for years and continue to do so. In addition to the financial investment, we have proven our commitment to the further development of our fibres by creating the new division New Business Development in summer 2020.
Ruth Farrell: We have recently announced the Naia sustainability goals. By 2025, Eastman Naia plans to invest more than 75 per cent of the textiles R&D resources in circular solutions.
Gianni Corso: MIC's investment share in sustainability is getting more and more relevant: MIC will double its investments in R&D as we will indicate in our Sustainability EP&L next year and we are just about to start to enlarge this concept to our human resources as well.
Published on: 27/05/2021
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
This interview was first published in the Mar 2021 edition of the print magazine