Canadian Industrial Profile: Textiles and Apparel—Winter 2019

This industry profile provides a five-year forecast for Canada’s textiles and apparel industry.

Document Highlights

Positive Growth—Despite contracting throughout most of the past two decades, the industry has grown by 6.0 per cent annually in the past two years. And, while this pace will moderate, increasing demand for niche products—for example, many technical textiles—will allow growth to remain positive for much of the next five years.

Household Spending—Factors such as record levels of household debt and slower employment growth will dampen consumers’ ability to purchase discretionary items, including some textiles and apparel.

E-Commerce—The continued rise of e-commerce will allow apparel manufacturers to market their products directly to consumers, eliminating retailers. This will let consumers save on retail markups and ease the downside factors that the industry is currently facing.