Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail approached the Delhi High Court against its single judge order directing the company to maintain status quo on its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail. In August last year, Future had reached an agreement to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance. Amazon had urged the high court to enforce the order passed by Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining FRL from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal.

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC also sought detention of the directors of FCPL and FRL and other related parties in civil prison and attaching of their properties for alleged "wilful disobedience" of the emergency arbitrator's order. The HC which heard the matter for four consecutive days, had reserved its order on the main petition and also directed all other concerned authorities to maintain status quo in relation to the matters which are in violation of the emergency award and to file status report with regard to the present status within 10 days.

An arbitration court blocked Future Group 's sale of a swathe of assets to rival Reliance Industries after Amazon raised objections to the $3.4 billion deal, in a battle of the retail titans that could reshape the shopping sector.

As per an Economic Times report, Amazon, which had its sights set on ultimately owning part of the retail assets itself, argued a 2019 deal it had with a unit of Future contained clauses prohibiting Reliance Retail from selling them to anyone on a "restricted persons" list including Reliance.

After Future said it was not bound by an arbitrator's order that put the deal on hold, Amazon last month urged the high court in New Delhi to enforce it.

Justice J R Midha said that an immediate order was necessary to protect the US company's rights, adding that the arbitrator had "rightly proceeded" against Future.

Amazon said it welcomed the order. Future said it would explore all legal remedies to pursue the deal.

Fashion, lifestyle and home décor brand Chumbak plans to allocate 10 per cent budget this year to marketing initiatives.

The brand will mainly focus on digital platforms besides scaling its omni-channel business. It also plans to resume in-store marketing soon and has signed Bollywood actor Sara Ali Khan as first brand ambassador for its home and watch categories with the #WithChumbak campaign.

The campaign includes three films detailing a day in the life of Khan when she moves in #WithChumbak. These films have been created by The Script Room while the stills and mood films have been created by Verrocchios Workways and the media strategy is handled by Wavemaker India.

The campaign aims to strengthen brand both emotionally and rationally.

Established in 2010, the brand has transformed from accessories to a leading multi-category retailer with a dominating online presence along with 70+ exclusive brand stores.

It currently retails a portfolio of home and lifestyle categories such as décor and living, bed and furnishing, kitchen and dining, watches and accessories. It plans to launch a few categories over the next few months.

Join our community on Linkedin 

One of India’s largest knitwear brands, Rupa & Company plans to expand more in the premium and super-premium category besides improving focus on women, casual and thermal wear. The strategy is to foray into newer markets through new distributors besides penetrating deeper into existing ones. This would help increase investments in brand development across new geographies.

The company witnessed a 52 per cent jump in its Q3 net profit to Rs 43 crore in the quarter ended December 2020, as against Rs 28 crore it reported in the year-ago period. Its revenue during the quarter rose by 12 percent to Rs 345 crore, as against Rs 307 crore it reported in the corresponding period last year.

Established with a vision to serve the erstwhile hosiery market, Rupa & Company has emerged as a key player in Indian innerwear segment over the years. While Frontline is its flagship brand, Rupa family also consists of brands like Softline, Euro, Bumchums, Torrido, Thermocot, Macroman, Footline and Jon.

Designer Amit Aggarwal has collaborated with shawl brand Dusala to create a collaborative collection of handloom sarees, capes and stoles crafted with zari.

The Amit Aggarwal x Dusala collection features 15 garments in a range of metallic hues of gold, green, beige, purple, and teal among others. Each piece in the collection is given a name inspired by poetry including Hasrat, Jahan, Tabeer, Ranjish, and Arsh among others. Shawls and sarees are contrasted by slightly more structured garments including a waterfall style jacket and loose cape.

The new collection retails on Dusala’s dedicated e-commerce store and prices range from $929 (Rs 67,752) to $2,566. It also features in a campaign shot by Ankit Chawla with model Rashmi Mann and coordinated by Jahnvi Bansal. The campaign also features “poetry and translation by Amit Aggarwal,” Dusala shared on Facebook.

Dusala specialises in pashmina weaves and retails from its founder Sugandha Kedia’s multi-brand store ‘One’ store in Raipur as well as its e-commerce store. Kedia founded Dusala with the aim of promoting pashmina globally and providing employment for skilled weavers, according to the brand’s website.

Designer Nikasha Tawadey has plans to retail its new clothing line Nika online from March this year to serve the Indian market. The range was launched recently at Design Orchard in Singapore and features relaxed fit separates including tops, trousers, tunics, and dresses in white, handwoven textiles with pops of color such as red tassels. Whimsical details such as embroidered animals add a playful element to the range of fusion wear which is designed to be suitable for everything from working from home to attending events.

Tawadey has begun working with women oriented crafts clusters including weavers and social enterprises for her brand. Nika has already begun working with an organization for blind women and is contributing to training the members to make accessories . This is part of the brand’s steps towards creating a circular economy, says Tawadey.

Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail approached the Delhi High Court against its single judge order directing the company to maintain status quo on its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Reliance Retail. In August last year, Future had reached an agreement to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance. Amazon had urged the high court to enforce the order passed by Singapore's Emergency Arbitrator (EA) restraining FRL from going ahead with its Rs 24,713 crore deal.

Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC also sought detention of the directors of FCPL and FRL and other related parties in civil prison and attaching of their properties for alleged "wilful disobedience" of the emergency arbitrator's order. The HC which heard the matter for four consecutive days, had reserved its order on the main petition and also directed all other concerned authorities to maintain status quo in relation to the matters which are in violation of the emergency award and to file status report with regard to the present status within 10 days.

The powerloom stakeholders in the textile towns of Malegaon and Ichalkaranji in Maharashtra said the imposition of 10 per cent customs duty on cotton would hit them.

Satish Koshti, President, Ichalkaranji Powerloom Weavers Association, said, due to increase in customs duty, there will be shortage of cotton in the market and we will have to procure it at higher costs. The finished cloth and garments imported will be much cheaper than their product.

Several stakeholders said the sector is reeling under severe crisis as the demand for grey cloth that they produce is not picking up. The textile manufacturers have been demanding a ban on cheaper garments imported from nearby countries such as Bangladesh.

The Centre announced seven textile parks but Malegaon and Ichalkarani did not feature in the list. Nitin Gawali, regional MIDC officer, said they are developing a textile park on their own on 113 hectares at Sayane in Malegaon taluka of Nashik district.

Some stakeholders were expecting funds for upgrading the machinery. Ex-minister for textiles Prakash Awade expected big amount to be set aside for upgradation. He expected the financial package to overcome demonetization and lockdown effects.

The government plans to reduce basic custom duty rates on caprolactum, nylon chips and nylon fiber and yarn to 5 per cent to bring the nylon chain on par with polyester and other man-made fibres.

To benefit cotton and silk growers, the government also proposes to raise customs duty on cotton from nil to 10 per cent and on raw silk and silk yarn from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

Further, to enable the Indian textile industry to become globally competitive, attract large investments and boost employment generation, it plans to launch a scheme of Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA) will be launched in addition to the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. It will also implement four labor codes and apply minimum wages to all categories of workers, and cover them by the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).