A seamless CEO

July 15, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: design, General, Life 

From a Tefron catalog

Pointing you toward an article I just wrote for WWD about Tefron, the seamless knitting company from Israel, which includes the National Football League, Reebok, Lululemon athletica and Patagonia among its long client list. I’d been waiting a few months to interview Amit Meridor, the new CEO of Tefron, which had been having some tough times in the last year.

After borrowing several million dollars from Israel’s three largest banks — because they lost a lot of business post the U.S. economic downturn and primarily from their #1 client, Victoria’s Secret — they also hired Meridor and some other senior management and embarked on a serious cost-cutting and efficiency plan.

Here’s the gist of their goals for the next few quarters:

“Where Tefron failed [compared to competitor Delta Galil], explains Meridor, was in manufacturing and timely delivery, particularly because of its cut-and-sew departments. Most textile companies worldwide outsource their cut-and-sew work to cheaper shores, such as Bangladesh, India and China. Delta Galil has been outsourcing to Egypt for years. But Tefron had not completed that shift despite working with nearby neighbor Jordan on certain sewing segments, and that deficiency helped account for their recent losses….

For now, that means focusing on the cut-and-sew segments of the company, which is the area that “got hit” in Tefron’s downturn, says Meridor. The prices for cut-and-sew workers were too high in Israel and as a result, Tefron couldn’t offer any special deals to its clients. With 40% of the business in cut-and-sew garments, the company is now looking to Bangladesh, Egypt, India and China for that segment of the business. That transition is already taking place, but the big shift will be by 2012, says Meridor.

“In this business, there’s a lot of sewing and you have to know how to do offshore work,” offered Meridor. “Jordan does great work, as good as China or India. That, along with our duty free agreements gives us a break of 15% to 30%, and that helps us succeed.”

Despite the changes, the company has some prestigious new customers, including the National Football League, a development they have been working on for four years with Reebok, creating new uniforms that help contain the body but which don’t rip easily. Lululemon athletica and Patagonia continue to be strong, solid clients, according to Meridor, and Tefron will also be developing army uniforms in the U.S. and Europe.”

You can read the full story in WWD. And hopefully Tefron will be bringing me to Egypt over the next few months to see their operations over there. Stay tuned.

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Tourists flocking to Israel

July 15, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Holidays, Life, Travel 

Despite the tensions with Hizbullah in the North, Hamas in the South, and flotillas, boycotts and the World Cup, tourists are once again flocking to Israel.

According to figures released by the Tourism Ministry this week, some 1.6 million people visited Israel between January and July, – an increase of 39 percent over the same period in 2009, and 10% more than in 2008, the country’s previous record year.

The ministry figures also showed record-breaking numbers for June, with 259,000 tourists visiting in that month, an increase of 24% over June 2009 and 8% over 2008.

According to Tourism Minister Stas Meseznikov, it’s an aggressive marketing campaign by his ministry which is prompting travellers to choose Israel as a vacation destination. That effort has also increased the number of users of the ministry’s Web site – in the first half of 2010, more than 2.7 million users from over 220 countries entered the Web site – an increase of 30% over the same period last year and double the number for January-June 2008.

Travel professionals are also taking note of the treasures Israel has to offer. Jerusalem and Tel Aviv topped tourism magazine Travel and Leisure’s recent readers’ poll of the ten best cities in Africa and the Middle East. Jerusalem ranked as the best city and Tel Aviv was in third place, with only Cape Town, South Africa between them.

It’s likely that the combination of incoming tourists and the fact that Turkey has more or less dried up entirely as a vacation destination for Israelis has resulted in soaring hotel rates and few vacancies anywhere in the country this summer. It was so much more pleasant when we were ostracized.

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Hidden jem near Bar Giora

July 14, 2010 by · 3 Comments
Filed under: Travel 

Nachal Katlav from above

Our latest tiyul (#3) as part of 12-year-old Aviv’s year of pre-bar mitzvah hikes took us to Nachal Katlav. This 4.5-hour trek starts at the Bar Behar restaurant and information depot between Bar Giora and Nes Harim 20 minutes or so west of Jerusalem and descends deep a canyon with a dry riverbed (in Hebrew “Nachal,” in Arabic “Wadi”) at its base.

Looking down from the top of the hill, the nachal seems rather barren- a few bushes here and there but nothing like the lushness we found during hike #2 in the Carmel Mountains near Haifa. But after about 30 minutes on the trail, the scenery changes and we were suddenly enveloped in greenery – thick tree coverage, surprising rock formations, the remnants of the creek that once carved this canyon.

Also: flies, which threatened to ruin the loveliness of the walk. Aviv took special note of the overabundance of insects on the blog he’s keeping to chronicle his adventures around Israel.

Katlav is Hebrew for “strawberry tree” and there are some fascinating trees with reddish bark naturally peeling like the shavings of a lead pencil.

Bar Giora Train Station

The trail eventually comes out into a more typical open-air landscape near an overpass for the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv train. There is an abandoned station here labeled “Bar Giora” – it’s truly in the middle of nowhere and I’ve yet to be able to find out if there was ever a community here that needed a dedicated stop (readers: can you help?) We waited for a while, but no trains came.

Looking down at the route from a vantage point on the way up to a pre-1948 ruined Arab village, it’s clear why this particular line is so slow – there’s only one set of tracks! The trains must time their journeys accordingly, while winding in sharp turns through several mountain passes. The fast train to Tel Aviv, under perennial construction, will zip along the relatively straight route near Highway 1.

If you continue under the train tracks and go straight, you’ll reach another nachal – Sorek – which is flowing with water, but don’t drink it: it contains treated sewage from the city of Jerusalem. In years past, the river had such a stench, the Nachal Katlav tiyul was significantly less popular. On the day of our trip, the air was clear and stink-free.

The final part of this hike is not for the faint of heart. It involves a steep climb up a mountain where the rocks have barely a foothold on which to position yourself. Aviv, our budding mountain climber, called it “awesome.”

Back at Bar Behar, we had our usual treats of Magnum ice cream bars before heading home, invigorated by the surprises we found along the trail. Now it’s on to tiyul #4!

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This is the story of Johnny Rotten – in Israel

July 13, 2010 by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Life, Music, Politics, Pop Culture 

Imagine throwing a notorious ex-punk rocker like John Lydon, better known perhaps as Johnny Rotten of 1970s punk shockers The Sex Pistols, into the volatile Israeli cultural mix.

Johnny Rotten in Mea She’arim, Johnny Rotten at the Kotel, or maybe Johnny Rotten shopping in the shuk. That deliciously juxtaposed scene may come to be next month, when Lydon, considerably older but still feisty, brings his revamped post-Pistols band Public Image Ltd. to Israel for the first time.

Lydon’s performance at the Heineken Music Conference 2010 Festival in Tel Aviv on August 31 is already causing waves, with the usual suspects calling on the rock provocateur to cancel, like earlier moves by Elvis Costello and the Pixies, among others.

But the protesters didn’t take into account Lydon’s contrary personality – after all he used to be a punk. Speaking this week to BBC’s Music 6 program, Lydon said that instead of boycotting Israel, he’s planning on creating his own brand of anarchy in the UK during his visit here.

“Of course, there are all sorts of terrible politics going on down there but there is just about all over the world,” Lydon said. “You cannot separate yourself from your audience because of the political powers-that-be. I mean, I’m anti-government—I have been all my life no matter where I go—and I shall be making that loud and clearly proud once I’m in Israel.”

Lydon dismissed calls for him to stay away, saying that his presence in Israel will be his own form of protest.

“We’ve received a lot of hate mail, as it happens, [That] going to Israel is some kind of political faux pas. I say, ‘Don’t be so ignorant – it’s John speaking here and I’m going there to cause trouble and I will do it musically.’”

So whether we see Lydon out setting garbage bins on fire with the haredim, or joining the anti-wall protesters at Bi’lin, his visit here will undoubtedly be memorable. That is, unless he decides to stay in his comfortable five-star hotel.

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Gardening Jerusalem

July 12, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Environment, General, Israeliness, Life 

Another community garden in Israel

Exciting news for my neck of the woods, and I mean my very specific neck, that is, my own neighborhood.

It seems that Jerusalem is in the midst of a long-term campaign to develop its community gardens and lower its carbon footprint. To that end, a group of organizations are joining together to create a community garden in Talpiot that will be run by local residents and bring forth herbs, produce and flowers. They’re inviting us to come on Monday, July 12, at 4 pm, to start working, and get our hands dirty while enjoying light snacks and source learning on Tikun Olam during breaks.

I found out about this through facebook, where several fb friends were discussing the event, and trying to figure out where the garden is, exactly, even though the address is 148 Derech Hevron (I live at 155 Derech Hevron). So far, I don’t have an exact answer, although I could just mosey on down the street and find it for myself.

In the meantime, this whole project is being initiated by the Jerusalem Challenge, an organization that “builds bridges between young Jewish adults who are touring Israel and the kaleidoscope of Jewish communities that make up the modern city. Through a wide range of engaging and pluralistic Jewish experiences, tourists are transformed into participants in the Jewish adventure that energizes Israel’s capital city every day.” Their sponsors include answers.com, Nefesh bNefesh, ROI Community, Livnot U’Lehibanot, Pardes, Volunteer Jerusalem and the Presentense Institute.

Now that I think about it — and use Google maps — I’m thinking that this garden could be over by one of my favorite private gardens, discussed in another Israelity post. In any case, it’s all good, particularly if it’s about repairing the world and making the city of Jerusalem a little greener.

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