Now for today’s trivia question, brought to you by Lack of Supply Chain Integrity, Inc.
Q: What exactly is Egyptian cotton anyway?
A: Thanks to the lack of integrity within the sheet and bedding supply chain, I now know how Egyptian cotton differs from regular cotton. According to Wikipedia, Gossypium barbadense is known as extra-long staple cotton, sea island cotton, Pima cotton, and Egyptian cotton. It is sought after for its extra-long, silky fibers.This species of cotton only accounts for 8 percent of world production, whereas “upland cotton” accounts for 90 percent.
And now, on to the news.
- Indian Company Admits ‘Error’ After Target Cuts Ties Over Egyptian-Cotton Dispute
- Logility Acquires AdapChain
- JDA Announces $570 Million Equity Investment from Blackstone and New Mountain Capital
- Allow me to drone-on for a moment….
Welspun India was accused of selling fake Egyptian cotton sheets by its customer Target. Target stated that it is cutting ties with Welspun. Other large retailers such as Walmart and and Bed Bath and Beyond are also looking into the integrity of cotton products from Welspun. Welspun stock price is down about 33 percent this week. Steve Banker wrote a good post on supply chain integrity, focused primarily on counterfeiting, but clearly product quality is paramount as well.
Logility, one of the last remaining publicly-traded (as part of American Software) supply chain planning software companies, announced that it has acquired AdapChain. AdapChain is a privately-held provider of integration software and tools that expedite the integration of supply chain software with ERP solutions. I view this as a sensible acquisition for Logility, as best of breed providers must compete against incumbent ERP providers for new supply chain software sales. ERP vendors promote their ability to offer the benefits of one integrated system across all major functions of an organization. Best of breed vendors must overcome the extra integration efforts required by touting their superior features and functionality. Decreasing integration costs a nd efforts enhances the best of breed value proposition.
JDA Software announced that it will receive a $570 million equity infusion from Blackstone and New Mountain Capital (its current owner). This came after a week of speculation that Honeywell was going to acquire JDA. This sounded unconventional to me, but plausible due to Honeywell’s recently announced acquisition of Intelligrated, a well-established warehouse automation company. The specific terms of the Blackstone and New Mountain Capital equity deal were not mentioned, but the equity infusion allows JDA to payoff debt, free up cash that would have gone toward interest payments, and remove uncertainty surrounding debt rollover terms and requirements. Overall, it allows JDA to take a longer-term focus without the short-term concern of profit margins required to service debt payments.
Swiss Post announced a new partnership with UK-based start-up Starship Technologies. I find robotics incredibly interesting. They’re being adopted in the warehouse, but now it looks like they’re showing potential for parcel delivery as well. Swiss Post will begin trials in three cities starting next month. Initially, the robots will carry dummy parcels. The functionality will be tested and the impact assessed, and there is potential for Swiss Post to go live next year.
Domino’s Pizza is trialing pizza delivery by drone in New Zealand in the next step of making every man a couch potato. I say, “what’s next, beer delivery by drone?” Wait, that’s already been done.
That’s all folks. Have a great weekend! And enjoy this week’s educational video, The History of Cotton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ZJL34OY5w
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