Expecting online sales to cross the Rs 10,000 crore mark soon, Arvind Fashions has made huge investments in various digital channels. Not only does the company sell on all third-party portals, it has also scaled up its own website, said Kulin Lalbhai, Director to the Economic Times. Currently, the company is integrating stores with online channels to ramp up sales. 

Positive results from Flipkart partnership

Having seen incredible traction last quarter, Arvind Fashions has collaborated with Flipkart to build its brand Flying Machine. The partnership will help Arvind Fashions explore the best of both worlds, Lalbhai feels as it combines Flipkart’s reach and analytics with Arvind’s brand-building capabilities and supply chain. The partnership is already yielding positive results with territory sales of Flying Machine growing almost 70 percent during the festive season. 

Sales recovery with efficient cost management

The company’s offline sales are also promising, says Lalbhai. It saw a healthy recovery in January sales and expects the trend to continue. It also plans to get a lot of fresh merchandise in stores from February onwards, he adds. Meanwhile, Arvind Fashions managed to cut down a few the costs like temporary rental reductions and other costs during the pandemic. Though these costs are expected to rise again, the company has done a lot of structural cost savings, adds Lalbhai. It has not only reduced employee headcount but also cut supply chain costs. Arvind Fashions is also working on raw material costs and plans to introduce new strategies to prevent margin dilution and price corrections due to an increase in prices. Robust revenues in Q2 & Q3

The company clocked in robust revenue growth in both the second and third quarters of the current financial year and had a much better bottom line. Currently, its offline sales have recovered to 70 percent of pre-COVID levels while online sales are 230 percent of last year. Adjusted for the Ind-As accounting, the company’s EBITDA is also much better than last year’s third quarter. Most of its brands are gaining market share through sales on Flipkart and the company expects the trend to continue. 

Casual wear to drive future growth

Lalbhai believes, the current casualization trend is not a response to COVID but existed even before that. The pandemic has only accelerated this trend with workwear transforming from formal to semi-formal. He expects casual wear brands like Tommy, Calvin Klein, and US Polo to continue growing and emerge stronger from the pandemic. T-shirts and polos will lead casual wear growth post-COVID, says Lalbhai. He also expects rapid growth for the footwear segment in times to come.

Latest Textile News

The net profit of Raymond plunged 88.7 per cent to Rs 22.18 crore for the third quarter ending December 2020. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 196.83 crore during the October-December period of the previous fiscal. Its revenue from operations declined by 34.1 per cent to Rs 1,243.44 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 1,885.43 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Raymond’s total expenses during the quarter declined 30.9 per cent to Rs 1,274.38 crore as against Rs 1,844.69 crore in the year-ago quarter. The company’s revenue from textiles declined 30.3 per cent to Rs 603.04 crore as against Rs 865.54 crore in the corresponding quarter. Revenue from shirting declined 48.7 per cent to Rs 86.04 crore as against Rs 167.79 crore in Q3/FY2019-20.

Revenue from apparel segment declined by 56.8 per cent to Rs 210.77 crore as against Rs 487.74 crore and garmenting segment was down 42.9 per cent to Rs 136.54 crore as against Rs 239.01 crore in the year-ago quarter.

In the third quarter ended 2020, Future Retail reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 846.92 crore as business continued to be impacted by the pandemic. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 164.56 crore in the October-December quarter a year ago.

Revenue from operations declined 71 per cent to Rs 1,506.87 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 5,193.19 crore of the corresponding quarter last fiscal. Its expenses declined to Rs 2,391.43 crore as against Rs 5,042.46 crore, down 52.6 per cent.

In August last year, the FRL board approved the amalgamation of FRL along with other group companies with Future Enterprises to facilitate Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell the retail and wholesale businesses to Reliance Retail

Leading fashion and lifestyle destination Myntra has collaborated with Teach For Change, backed b y Tollywood actor and producer Lakshmi Manchu as the trustee and chairperson. Through this partnership Myntra aims to support less privileged children from various government schools across Hyderabad to spread cheer and positivity in their lives.

As a part of this initiative, Myntra distributed clothes and footwear among 1,000 children by the actor. The children are beneficiaries under the Teach For Change program, an initiative to improve literacy and life skills among children studying in government schools.

Indian fashion e-commerce company headquartered in Bengaluru, Myntra was founded in 2007 to sell personalized gift items. Incepted by Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania and Vineet Saxena, it sold on-demand personalized gift items and mainly operated on the B2B (business-to-business) model in initial years. Between 2007 and 2010, the site allowed customers to personalize products such as T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, and others.

Traditional and occasional wear designer Jayanti Reddy will showcase her new bridal wear collection at a wedding-themed shopping event at her eponymous brand’s flagship store in New Delhi’s Mehrauli on February 12. The designer had earlier held a shopping fair at the Mehrauli flagship from January 29 to 31 with promotional offers on its end of season pieces.

The new collection will be inspired by, inherent magic and practiced meditation of heritage weaves. In this collection, Reddy pairs her bridal saris and lehengas with heavily embellished blouses in hues of magenta, royal purple, and red. The scalloped edges and floral motifs of this collection give it a highly feminine feel. The traditional color scheme of this collection accentuated with bright yellow and ivory hues added to it.

Reddy launched her eponymous brand in 2012 after studying business administration and marketing in the US Her brand retails from its dedicated e-commerce store, flagship store, and multi-brand boutiques both online and offline.

Benetton India plans to strengthen its presence in the fashion footwear and inner-wear segments in the next three years in the country. The company expects footwear and innerwear segments to contribute nearly 15-20 per cent of overall business in the next three years. It has completely developed a footwear line in India with 90 per cent of business being driven from the online channel currently. It also plans to add 30-40 new stores this year besides launching its online store in the second half of the year.

The company aims to expand its presence across all the channels. Its e-commerce channel is growing in high double-digit CAGR due to low penetration and it will also continue to leverage on this opportunity in the right manner.

Benetton is optimistic about the government’s move to set up seven textile parks in the country in the next three years to position India as a fully integrated manufacturing and exporting hub. This will enable the country in strengthening its presence in the global supply chain.

The Commerce and Industry ministry plans to issue clarifications on the new e-commerce policy to ensure players work within the regulatory boundaries and do not influence consumer choice. The ministry ordered the Reserve Bank of India and the enforcement directorate to initiate a fresh probe against Amazon and Flipkart regarding allegations of violation of foreign direct investment norms.

The ministry also pointed at recent data to argue exports were improving and a decline in the number of coronavirus cases in several developed countries in Europe as well as in the US will help push shipments from the country. He also assured that the the steps announced in the Budget as well as the production linked incentive scheme will boost investment and help revive economic activity. The ministry further said that India was well below the prescribed limit for public procurement of foodgrains under the WTO rules.

The ASW Marketplace held its first vendor meet session on February 2 under the leadership of Ramesh Gunasekaran, Head Sourcing, Easybuy-Max Retail Division, Landmark Group. Gunasekaran shared his views on the growing value retail segment, the strategy of Easybuy and what constitutes a preferred supplier. The ASW team also arranged six on request, one-on-one meetings between exhibitors and EasyBuy, after the session.

As per KSA market size report, India’s apparel markets middle and economy value segment is worth around Rs 1,60,000 crore which is highest compared to all other categories including higher middle/value fast fashion, premium segment and super premium or luxury segment. Affordable, family retailer of the Landmark Group, Easybuy already has 100 stores across India with an impressive turnover of around Rs. 500 crore. The company’s products are fairly priced. It also focuses on the Tier II and III markets and expects to reach a turnover of Rs 3,000 crore by 2024 with 250 stores across India.

Business in the woven segment of the company is expected to grow 40 per cent in the next two years while the knit segment will grow 28 per cent. The retailer follows a four seasons sourcing cycle and it requires goods at the distribution centre 45 days ahead of the season’s starting. So, vendors normally get overall lead time of 120 to 130 days and for specifically manufacturing, they get 6 weeks to 9 weeks, depending on orders’ complexity.

On account of the developments around the COVID-19 vaccine roll out plan which has seen jumbo COVID care centres doubling up as vaccination centres, trade fairs scheduled at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in March have been pushed ahead.

Currently, the organisers intend to announce new dates for the Mumbai editions of Gartex Texprocess India and Screen Print India in the coming weeks. The Delhi edition continues to be on schedule for the two fairs.

Messe Frankfurt India shared that the Mumbai edition of Screen Print India will also be rescheduled. As companies gear up for business revival, the organisers shared that a final decision will be taken in consultation with venue operators to host the show in the first half of the year, as soon as the venue is made safely accessible.

Gaurav Juneja, Director, MEX Exhibitions said, Gartex Texprocess India will be a catalyst in the recovery of trade momentum for this sector and its new hybrid format will go a step ahead to ensure onsite exhibitors can increase their product and brand exposure and match with potential clients through their digital presence.