On the 21^st and 22^nd of November the CINET meeting Marketing Strategies and Business Concepts took place in Amsterdam. The presentations covered textile cleaning now and in the future, the challenge of a shrinking market, from opportunities to possibilities in the dry cleaning trade and 4 business cases throughout Europe and gave a good basis for further discussion and thoughts. The following action points were decided: The board incited the CINET members to bring forward their own ideas and they still do. So if you do have a point for CINET please don’t hesitate to contact the board.
A follow up for this meeting will be organised on 26^th and 27^th of March next year.
The presentations can be found on the website on the member’s area, button meetings

On the 7^th of June the CINET Conference will be organised in Brussels. The CINET Board has prepared an interesting programme covering the major topics concerning the dry cleaning industry. CINET intends to be the communication platform for the industry within Europe and abroad with an extended service level for the members. For more information you can contact the secretariat.

Commissioner Mandelson informed textile producers that the Commission was examining the request for safeguards against certain Chinese textile imports presented by Euratex on March 9. He said that he as long as the Commission had credible import data for Chinese textiles he would be in a position to make a decision on launching a safeguards investigation on April 25.

 

Such an investigation would last for sixty days during which the Commission would determine if serious disruption of the European textile market had occurred. If such disruption was found, the Commission would launch formal consultations with the Chinese. If the Chinese did not act to limit exports without delay, temporary safeguards in the form of import quotas could be used.

The Jet took place from Sunday 17 April till Tuesday 19 April in Paris. The current situation is that textile care professionals are asking questions about their future. Companies are searching for textile care solutions. Jet 2005 provides stands where companies present their solutions, round tables and discussions for exchanging experiences. Each day is devoted to a precise theme: “New perspectives for dry cleaning and laundries”, “Laundries for retirement homes and for other groups” and “The textile care and logistics for work wear”

The National All Industries Conference took place on the 12^th of March at the Slough/Windsor Marriott Hotel. The theme of the conference was ‘Choices’ which reflected on issues to increase the profitability and the advancement to success in the line of business. Contributions were made among others by Fay Rushby & Mike Etkin “Solvent Emissions Directive”, Shaun Mason “Green Earth”, Martyn Lewis “The Way We Were” and Alan Springall “Image & Design”. For more information:  www.gcl.org.uk/conferences.htm

 

The European Union proposed a new chemical regulatory framework. This framework which involves Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) will require companies that make or import more than one ton of a chemical to register it on a central database. REACH will replace diverse existing directives and regulations. According to the discussion and the debate about the new regulation, it seems at the moment likely that already this year a positive decision will be made.