With open land scarce in Bangladesh, the textile industry is playing a part in the nation’s clean energy transition by using roof space for solar power.
Reuters
Under pressure from global brands to go green, textile suppliers, which account for 85% of Bangladesh’s exports, are hoping new initiatives can help find the funds they need to expand rooftop solar power systems.
Small and medium-sized factories that form the bulk of Bangladesh’s garment and textile manufacturers often lack financing to build their own solar plants, and few energy companies have came forward to make the investments – wary of failing to get returns in case smaller factories default on their obligations.
To break this deadlock, fashion brands are teaming up with energy companies to co-invest in building rooftop solar capacity for smaller Bangladeshi suppliers, creating a synergy of brand investment and commitment with energy company expertise.
One example is the Greener Garments Initiative (GGI), in which the Danish clothing brand Bestseller joined with the solar energy company SOLShare to jointly invest in construction of rooftop solar plants at garment factories in Bangladesh.
“Scaling up brand support to suppliers’ solar growth could speed up the industry’s energy transition,” said Aziza Sultana Mukti, Deputy CEO at SOLShare.
Involvement of fashion brands encourages suppliers to switch to solar power faster while making the investment financially safer for the solar energy company that builds the photovoltaic system, she added.
The joint initiative catering to small and medium-sized factories has already installed a combined capacity of more than seven megawatt-peak (MWp) in the last two years, said Mukti.
While such a capacity is not terribly large, GGI’s solar installations have grown by more than 200% in the last 18 months and it plans to build out capacity in the coming years, he added.
Other initiatives being tested include the Apparel Impact Institute, which is pooling contributions from brands and philanthropic organizations to support Bangladeshi factories in developing rooftop solar capacity.
Bangladesh’s textile-dominated industrial sector could build roughly 5,000 MW of solar power, about fifth of the country’s total generation capacity, while rooftop solar installations now make up less than 1%, according to an analysis by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), a global think tank.
“Industrial rooftop solar has not been reaching its true potential as many manufacturers struggle to access the required finance,” said Shafiqul Alam, IEEFA’s lead energy analyst for Bangladesh.
Most of the progress in building rooftop solar capacity so far has come from large manufacturers.
The DBL Group, one of the country’s biggest manufacturers with 50,000 workers, invested to build 5.42 MW capacity on its factory rooftops – a significant amount for a single business group – and plans to multiply its solar generation in the next few years.
“Arranging finance for renewable energy projects is not a big challenge for us – and we have made our own investments in our rooftop solar plants,” said Mashook Mujib Chowdhury, senior manager of sustainability at the DBL Group.
Large suppliers are more likely to build rooftop solar plants with their own investments using capital expenditure, said Chowdhury.
Smaller joint initiatives like the GGI by SOLShare and Bestseller, on the other hand, are implementing operational expenditure projects in the textile sector, he said.
This means an energy company builds, owns and runs the rooftop solar plant and charges the factory for the power generated – while selling any surplus power to the grid.
Such a model “works better for smaller suppliers to meet their gaps in finance, knowledge and technical know-how,” said Mohiuddin Rubel, former director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and also managing director of Denim Expert Ltd.
For fashion brands like Bestseller, reducing suppliers’ emissions is key to their decarbonization goals as these account for 96% of the sector’s emissions, said a study published last year by the Apparel Impact Institute.
“As a big buyer from Bangladesh – one of our key sourcing regions – we are committed to support suppliers who are navigating more and more climate targets,” said Felicity Tapsell, head of responsible sourcing at Bestseller.
Bestseller is also considering supporting suppliers with big ticket clean technology investments like biomass boilers or heat pumps, said Tapsell.
“Financing solar plants on factory rooftops may not be enough – as they need a few more things for energy transition,” said Rubel.
For decarbonization to be sustainable, suppliers need long-term partnership from brands, low-cost financing and tax cuts from the government, he added.
Footasylum‘s busy store-opening strategy of 2025 has continued into the new year with the footwear/sportswear business now planing to open a “landmark” new store in the Trinity Leeds shopping centre in April.
Footaylum
The 12,000 sq ft store “builds on Footasylum’s long-standing presence in Leeds”, and follows the “strong performance” of its former store at The Core shopping centre and last year’s “successful” pop-up at Trinity Leeds, it said.
The new store will be located on the centre’s lower ground floor in the unit previously occupied by Superdry.
To celebrate the spring opening, Footasylum said will be “bringing its social media strategy from the screens to the streets” with a series of events in-store.
It will also be partnering with local businesses “to celebrate the incredible talent within the city and connect with consumers at a local level”, it added.
On the latest opening, Shannon Osman, head of Retail at Footasylum, added: “Leeds has always been a strong market for [us]. The response to our pop-up in the Trinity shopping centre last year and our previous store at The Core demonstrated clear demand for a bigger, permanent Footasylum presence in the city.
“This store represents an important step as we continue our rollout across the UK and beyond under Aurelius’ ownership. Investing in high-quality retail spaces remains central to our multi-brand, multi-channel strategy, and we look forward to further openings in the year ahead.”
Footasylum added that the Trinity Leeds opening forms part of its ongoing UK store rollout and follows a number of recent openings including Cornmill Centre, Darlington, Croft Retail and Leisure Park, Bromborough and Forster Square shopping centre, Bradford.
Separately, the company also noted that it continues to progress its international expansion programme having signed a distribution agreement with MAD agency across the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland in November.
In addition, a new strategic partnership with Apparel Group was signed in December, “setting in motion plans to open Footasylum stores across the Gulf Cooperation Council region”, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
Landsec’s prime shopping destinations had a shining Golden Quarter in terms of both sales and footfall with health & beauty (+13%) and clothing (+5%) sales becoming “the strongest-performing categories” across its major retail destinations.
Bluewater
The key quarter, which includes Christmas trading, “maintained healthy consumer demand, exceeding last year’s impressive figures and pulling further ahead of market averages”, the commercial property giant said in a trading statement Monday (19 January).
With Liverpool One and Bluewater in Kent among its portfolio of key shopping/entertainment destinations, total Golden Quarter sales rose 4.9% year-on-year, “significantly outperforming the national retail benchmark”, which it notes fell by 0.2%. And during the three peak Christmas shopping weeks, sales were up 6.5% year-on-year, it added.
Footfall across Landsec’s major shopping centres and outlets also rose by 0.7% over the quarter, compared with the national benchmark of -0.3% across the wider market, “supported by strong seasonal momentum”.
Since FY22, its retail destinations have also seen cumulative sales growth of 20%, outperforming the UK national average by 17ppt, it also noted.
Performance-wise, health & beauty’s particularly strong showing was helped by four out of the six new Sephora stores opened in the UK over the past 12 months having been at Landsec destinations, it added.
And let’s not forget the rising importance of leisure and hospitality, with both also playing key roles in consumer engagement, seeing a 6.2% growth in sales.
“This category also played a key role in increasing dwell times across Landsec’s centres, reinforcing the importance of [our] experience-led strategy in supporting retail spend and repeat visits”, it noted.
Bruce Findlay, managing director of Retail at Landsec, added: “Consumers continue to seek out destinations which combine a wide selection of the best brands with best in class experiences. This was certainly true during the Golden Quarter with sales and footfall for prime retail once again ahead of the wider market.
“With a reach of one in four UK consumers, we offer brands more footfall than any other retail platform. By combining this reach with the powerful data insights available to us, we’re creating a self-reinforcing growth engine that delivers higher sales and attracts the world’s best brands.”
He added: “Alongside a strong leisure and hospitality offer, we provide compelling, experience-led retail environments, positioning us well for continued success as we look ahead to 2026.”
UK retail giant Frasers Group has announced the integration of Sports Direct Membership into its ‘Frasers Plus’ loyalty scheme “to create one unified, rewards platform” from February.
Frasers Group
Aiming to widen its customer loyalty offer, Frasers Plus is the group’s credit payment account “that rewards customers every time they shop across the Frasers Group portfolio and partner retailers”.
With this integration, users “will gain access to even greater rewards with more exclusive benefits and personalised offers” the group said.
Frasers said the move marks a new chapter in its digital elevation as it unifies Sports Direct Membership’s loyalty and rewards offerings under Frasers Plus.
The integration “simplifies the customer shopping experience” across the group’s portfolio (Sports Direct, Flannels, and Frasers) and 16 partner retailers (including LookFantastic, Myprotein, Marks Electrical), “providing a single destination for rewards, personalised offers, and flexible payment options” in the Frasers Plus app.
David Twigg, MD of Frasers Group Financial Services, said: “This is an exciting step forward for Frasers Plus. By integrating Frasers Group’s existing loyalty offerings under Frasers Plus, we’re building on important learnings from the past year about how our customers like to shop and streamlining the customer experience to deliver a more powerful, personalised, and cohesive rewards proposition across the full Frasers Group portfolio and partner retailers.”
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