Energy Wears Down Fashion – The Fashion Industry’s Struggle
The energy war that has played out in Europe for the past several months has challenged its next victim: the fashion industry. As Europe slowly recovers from Covid-19, economies in several countries have had issues rebounding to pre-pandemic levels of activity. This, multiplied by the dwindling supply of Russia’s natural gas following NATO’s alliance with Ukraine, has plagued the energy and oil and gas industries, evoking high energy bills to meet high costs and inflationary pressures. Now, what does this all have to do with the fashion industry?
Big fashion corporations – whether they be fast-fashion empires like H&M to luxury favorites like Gucci – have had to face major issues in production and supply chain operations. Energy costs for textile makers have grown to around 25% of production costs, growing 15 percentage points from the ordinary 5%. With energy expenses so high for several of these European factories and workshops, profit margins have decreased substantially, even after facing the effect high inflation has on consumer spending. To combat this, countries across Europe have begun to adopt energy price caps to help stimulate economic growth in industries such as textiles, which is comprised of 1.3 million jobs that are in dire need of support.
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I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.