India’s leading independent fashion platform LimeRoad has announced a slew of relief measures for employees affected with COVID during India's second wave of infections that peaked in April this year.

The e-commerce platform has allowed employees two additional weeks of leave for COVID over and above their regular annual leave. The organization will provide financial assistance to all employees to help cover their COVID expenses including medical aid, hospitalization, and post-COVID recovery.

For employees earning salaries below Rs 50,000 pm, the company has announced a special COVID term-insurance of up to Rs 300,000. This is in addition to the Medical Insurance that covers all hospital costs, and staff-on-demand in the Delhi-Gurgaon area to help with essential services when employees are in need.

In May’21, LimeRoad recorded 121 per cent growth in sales than in May '20 and 11 per cent decline from March'21. The company expects to grow by 40 per cent over the next 3 months.

Founded in 2012, LimeRoad bagged Business Today Startup of the Year Award in 2015, and the Economic Times Best Supply Chain of the Year Award in 2018.

Owner of the popular brand Manyavar, Vedant Fashions plan to raise Rs 2,500 crore in 2021 by launching a new IPO. Ravi Modi-founded fast growing apparel company has held advanced discussions with few domestic investment banks including ICICI Securities, Kotak Mahindra Capital, Edelweiss Financial Services, IIFL Capital and Axis Capital for the proposed listing. The soon-to-be launched IPO will chiefly consist of an OFS (offer for sale) component to facilitate a partial exit for the key investor Kedaara Capital.

Founded in 1999, Vedant Fashions is a pan-India player with a retail presence of 600 plus stores in over 200 cities and 3 countries with 11 international stores in UAE and the US. By 2025, the firm plans to have 1,500,000 sq ft of Manyavar retail space, 500,000 sq. ft. of Mohey retail space and 1,000 exclusive stores including 250 flagship and 50 global stores at 300 cities across India and abroad. It is also aiming for a production capacity of 10 million pieces per annum.

Apparel manufacturer Rupa& Co posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 65.96 crorein FY21 Q4 compared with a loss of Rs 4.28 crore in the corresponding quarter in the previous fiscal.

The company's revenue from operations jumped 153 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 453.99 crore from Rs 179.30 crore posted in the same quarter year ago. On a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis, the figure grew 31.3 per cent.

The EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) soared 1,050 per cent to 90.6 crore in Q4FY21 from Rs 7.9 crore posted in Q4FY20. The EBITDA margins came in at 20 per cent during the quarter under review. The figure stood at 4 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.

For the full financial year 2021, the company logged its highest-ever revenues and profits at Rs 1,312.7 crore and Rs 175.3 crore, respectively.

The company plans to increase share in premium and super-premium category, improve focus on women, casual, and thermal wear, and foray into newer markets with higher penetration in the existing markets.

The Shopping Centres Association of India (SCAI) has urged various state governments to waive property taxes and fixed electricity charges to deal with the impact of the second wave of COVID-19. As per Economic Times, the association has also requested the state governments to allow shopping centres and malls to start operations as soon as restrictions imposed are eased.

Mukesh Kumar, Chairman, SCAI and CEO, Infinity Malls, said some of the state governments have partly waived off property taxes and fixed electricity costs.

Rajneesh Mahajan, Director, SCAI, said mall operators have recently received the property tax invoices, and if some kind of relief is announced before the payment is made, it can give them some cash flow benefits.

The association also expects some relief from the Reserve Bank of India in terms of one-time restructuring and moratorium.

Kumar said all the malls put together in the country generate an average business of around Rs 15,000 crore per month. They have more capabilities in cleaning, monitoring and implementing hygiene measures, he added.

The entire industry has continued to support the government at all times, adhering to all protocols laid down for creating and ensuring a safe environment, he added.

The COVID-19 wave and subsequent restrictions imposed by several states have led to significant decline in apparel sales in India, shows a survey by Retailers’ Association of India (RAI). Conducted among 63 participants pan-India, the survey highlights the pain lockdowns have brought for retailers across India.

The sharpest decline was seen among retailers of sports goods, which reported a 66 pre drop in business in April 2021 compared with April 2019, followed by footwear and beauty and wellness retailers. Consumer durables and electronics businesses declined 31 per cent in April 2021.

Retailers in west India reported 72 per cent drop in business during the month while those in east India reported the least impact on business. North India businesses declined by 45 per cent while those in South India dropped by 40 per cent compared with April 2019.

For the full year ended March 31, 2021, V-Mart Retail reported a 66 per cent growth in Y-o-Y income despite a challenging COVID impacted year. As per Equity Bulls, despite lower operating days, reduced topline and marginalized savings due to largely fixed cost structures, the company’s EBITDA recovery remained high at 61 per cent with 12.per cent EBITDA versus. 12.9 per cent reported for last year. However, the company reported its first-ever yearly loss at 2 -6 Cr in its 19 year history.

In its fourth quarter, V-Mart Retail saw a 106 per cent Y-o-Y increase in income to Rs 356 crore. However, its overall footfalls in the quarter remained low at 88 per cent Y-o-Y. An increase of 8 per cent in basket size and higher customer conversions helped improve the topline while improvements in inventory freshness and better full-price sales helped it to deliver a relatively better EBITDA growth of 21 per cent Y-o-Y for the quarter.

The company opened 20 new stores in FY21, of which seven were opened in the fourth quarter. It total store count now stands at 279. The company continued to embark on digitization and strengthening across the front-end and back-end operations during the fourth quarter. The Company achieved the Great Place to Work (GPtW) certification, during the quarter which indicates its lively work culture and high employee morale; and winner of Most Admired Affordable Retailer in Visual Merchandising concept at IFA- Images Fashion Awards.

The company is currently in the process of revitalizing the omni platform by creative and compelling products and shopping experience as it could offer a tremendous boost to its overall sales going forward.

India has witnessed a 49 per cent decline in apparel sales in April compared to the same period of 2019, according to a survey by the Retailers Association of India (RAI).

In March, the nationwide sales declined by 12 per cent, showed the survey. Region-wise, western India was the most impacted in April with a contraction of 72 per cent, followed by 45 per cent in the north. South and eastern India witnessed a contraction of 40 per cent and 38 per cent, respectively, in retail sales last month.

Among the sectors, sales of sports goods and footwear contracted by 66 per cent and 61 per cent, respectively, followed by a 59% de-growth in both jewellery and beauty, wellness and personal care categories. Other categories - food and grocery, apparel and clothing, quick service restaurant and consumer durables and electronics -- witnessed a sales contraction of 49 per cent, 47 per cent, 45 per cent and 31 pre cent, respectively.

Earlier this month, the industry body urged the government to take steps for capital infusion into the retail industry with ECLGS benefits and loan moratorium. Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, RAI, said the two most important and immediate steps that can prevent this industry from collapsing are to prioritize vaccination of the last mile workers and to urgently provide financial support.

RAI also recommended that the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of India to step in to bring some relief to the mounting stress on the retail business in the wake of second wave of COVID-19. It further sought a moratorium on principal and interest for six months for the 26 stressed sectors.

A vacation bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered Maharashtra government to penalize e-commerce dealers violating the COVID-related standard operating procedure (SOP) and selling non-essential items. The judges recorded that despite the ongoing violations by e-tailers being brought to the notice of the state, no action has been taken as yet. They directed the government to indicate what steps would be taken against e-commerce dealers supplying non-essential items.

The bench also directed the state to consider offering incentives retail traders. Hearing the petition by the Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association, the bench sought more time to decide on waiver of property tax, renewal tax and all licence fees for the entire lockdown period—from March 23, 2020, till when it ends. Senior advocate Anil Sakhare, for BMC also sought time to file a reply regarding cancellation of projection licences.