TOKYO, July 20 (Reuters) – Japan’s Fast Retailing (9983.T), operator of the Uniqlo casual clothing chain, said its procurement from textile maker Toray Industries (3402.T) would reach 400 billion yen ($4.6 billion) in the five years to 2015.
That will mark a 70 percent increase from the 240 billion yen in business during the previous five years of their partnership, which has helped Fast Retailing develop hit products and fuelled its global expansion.
Toray supplies Fast Retailing with textiles and has been working with the apparel giant on new fabrics, including the material used in its popular heat-trapping clothing.
Fast Retailing President Tadashi Yanai told a joint news conference he wants to strengthen their partnership as it accelerates a push into overseas markets, where it still gets less than 10 percent of its sales.
“I personally think in some countries we would like to do everything together from production to sales,” Yanai said. (Reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Michael Watson)
Britian”s first: Two lesbians listed as “parents” in child”s birth certificate
London, April 21 (ANI): A lesbian couple have become the first in Britian to get the word “father” removed from the birth certificate of their child.
Natalie Woods, 38, gave birth to 7lb 8oz daughter Lily-May Betty Woods after paying 7,000 pounds for IVF treatment, and will be taking care of the baby with her partner Betty Knowles, 47.
They are the first to use a law change allowing same sex parents to sign a birth certificate as “mother and partner”.
She will be known, as “Mummy” and they want Lily-May to refer to Knowles as “Mama B”.
Woods, who works for a Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender counselling service, gave birth to Lily-May in a birthing pool at their Brighton home and they plan to have a second child.
Knowles has had four weeks “paternity” leave from her job as a van driver, and the two plan to marry in a civil partnership next year.
“It is fantastic, quite a milestone. It”s also good that we don”t have any of the worries and concerns of me being the only legal parent,” the Daily Star quoted Woods as saying.
Lily-May can find out her father”s details when she turns 18, although her mum does not think of him as anything but a donor.
“We don”t even think of him as a father. He”s a donor, not a father,” Woods said.
“We explored the issue of not having a father figure for Lily-May in a counselling session and we”ve talked about how we will deal with it in the future.
“But there are more important things than having one father and one mother.
“Sadly, some people don”t understand that. There have been a few homophobic comments here and there, and my parents do not have a part in my life because of my sexuality,” she added. (ANI)