Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has launched a limited edition collection of two-layered ‘Happy Diwali’ printed face masks made of pure Muslin fabric. KVIC also plans to launch Christmas and New Year special masks in the coming days. The muslin face masks are priced nominally at Rs 75 a piece and are available for sale through the Khadi outlets in Delhi and online through KVIC’s e-portal www.khadiindia.gov.in.

Like other variants of Khadi face masks, these are skin-friendly, washable, reusable and bio-degradable and economical that suits all pockets. They have two layers of pure white Muslin fabric. The sparkling red piping on the masks adds to the style quotient as it has been designed to gel with the festive attires.

Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman, KVIC said, these face masks have added variety to its range of face masks that also include Cotton and Silk masks. They are also creating employment for Khadi artisans.

These masks retain moisture content inside, while providing an easy passage for the air to pass through. Their fabric is hand-spun and hand-woven that is extremely soft on skin and is comfortable for long-duration use.

Reliance Retail posted a 14 per cent decline in operating profit while revenue remained flat as many shoppers stayed indoors or preferred local shops and online buying instead of crowding large retail stores.

Reliance’s retail division, which runs 12,000 stores selling products across groceries, consumer electronics and apparel, posted sales of Rs 41,100 crore with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) at Rs1,986 crore. The growth, however, was strong compared to sequential quarter revenues growing 30 per cent and EBITDA increase 8 per cent against the June quarter. During the second quarter, the company opened 232 new stores and said it will accelerate further as operating curbs are being lifted.

In August, Reliance Retail Ventures agreed to buy the retail assets of Future Group in a deal that will see five listed entities, including Future Retail, folded into Future Enterprises FEL), which currently houses the group’s retail back-end infrastructure. The retail business will then be transferred to Reliance in a slump sale for nearly 25,000 crore. However, Amazon which has an indirect stake in FRL has contested the deal and has even received a ruling in their favour from the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) to halt the deal.

This deal requires approvals from Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Competition Commission of India (CCI) and National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in addition to no objection certificates from creditors and minority shareholders.

Textile major Arvind Ltd’s business was impacted due to COVID-19 and lockdowns throughout the quarter, resulting in poor sales and losses. The company reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 6 crore for the quarter ended on September 30, 2020, as against a net profit of Rs 50 crore it reported in the corresponding period last year. Total income during the quarter declined to Rs 1,319 crore, as against Rs 1,974 crore it reported in the corresponding quarter a year-ago.

Arvind is a leading player in India’s textile and apparel market. It owns several private labels and licenses for international brands in India. Its headquarters are in Naroda, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, and it has units at Santej. The company manufactures cotton shirting, denim, knits and bottomwear fabrics. It has also recently ventured into technical textiles when it started Advanced Materials Division in 2011.

Future Retail has urged the BSE and the NSE to ignore Amazon’s letter regarding the Singapore-based Emergency Arbitrator’s (EA) interim award, which has directed the Kishore Biyani-led Future Group to put on hold its Rs 24,713-crore deal with Reliance Industries. Amazon has sought damages of Rs 1,431 crore plus interest against its investment in Future Coupons.

The letter is being seen by legal experts as an effort to distance itself from the agreement between Biyani and Amazon, called Amazon’s contention to the EA as entirely misconceived. While maintaining that the interim award is not legally enforceable in India, as the deal with Reliance is in line with local laws. The EA order accepts Amazon’s contention that two separate shareholder agreement(s), one between Amazon and Future Retail’s promoters and another between Future Retail and its promoter constitute one single integrated transaction and that by such a composite transaction Amazon has an interest in and rights against Future Retail.

Myntra and LenzingEcovera™ fiber brands have joined forces for the upcoming festive season to provide clothing made entirely of eco-friendly viscose fiber.

The collaboration has invigorated Myntra’s in-house fashion brands to develop an environmentally responsible apparel line for both men and women.

Myntra’s brands Roadster, Dressberry, Mast &Harbour and House of Pataudi have had the most innovative minds work to build a wide range of designs for the collection. The outfits will be reasonably priced and cater to a diverse taste in fashion for buyers across India.

The LENZING™ ECOVERO™ fibres are derived from certified renewable sources of wood using a responsible production process meeting high environmental standards. What’s more, the viscose fibre is certified with the EU Ecolabel that is awarded to products and services meeting stringent sustainability requirements throughout their life cycle.

This collaboration will further enhance Myntra’s commitment towards the ecosystem.”

E-commerce company Snapdeal has launched an e-store Pride of India for “patriotic-themed items”, days ahead of India’s 74th Independence Day. In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for supporting local artisans and domestic manufacturing, the e-store will help sellers of indigenous products to revive business even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on businesses.

Other than local artisans, the online store will also feature products from women entrepreneurs, local weavers and craftsmen. Amazon and Flipkart already have their platforms in place to showcase local products — Amazon Karigar and Flipkart Samarth.

This year, the retailer has included patriotic-themed collections, indigenous items, and products from famous local brands to the e-store. These are across categories like apparel, decor, fashion accessories, cosmetics, and fitness. Items such as tri-color clothes, flags, books on independence, and organic food as well as collectibles like travel and tech accessories, fridge magnets, keychains, T-shirts, coffee mugs, and phone cases will be available.

For clothes, the company will showcase items of ethinc craftsmanship such as Jamdani, Bhagalpuri, Kantha, Kancheepuram, Phulkari, Ikkat, and Bhandej etc from states such as Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.

Through its own investigation, GOTS has finally obtained substantial documentary evidence confirming rumors about systematic fraud abusing the Indian government certification system of organic cotton production. During surveillance audits by GOTS accreditation body IOAS attended by GOTS experts, they detected fake raw cotton transaction certificates (TCs).

These TCs had been created by fraudsters using APEDA (Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of the Indian Government) templates with fake QR codes which led to a cloned APEDA website to pretend the TCs were authentic. GOTS has assured knowledge of 20.000 metric tons of fake material.

GOTS reported that it accepts raw organic cotton if it is certified to any of the IFOAM Family of Standards. In India, the nodal agency to certify organic raw cotton for export is APEDA. Their system is similar to GOTS’, where TCs are issued by their Certification Bodies (CBs) and carry information about certified produce (volume, transport details, buyer, seller, etc.).

GOTS has instructed its’ approved CBs to cancel all upstream TCs issued based on wrongly issued TCs in order to prevent affected goods from being sold with GOTS labels. A certification ban (CB) on 11 companies was imposed and the contract with one approved CB was terminated.

GOTS has submitted all facts to APEDA urging an investigation, criminal prosecution, and improvement. All GOTS-certified organisations have been informed on the matter and are being provided guidance accordingly.

Dear Reader, we at DFU Publications are committed to providing the latest news updates on trade development and insights, to keep our readers informed. Stay tuned. Subscribe to our newsletter.

TOP 5:

1. Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company, collaborates with PUMA on the ‘1DER' line, which features batsman KL Rahul

2. Consumers will determine growth of sustainable fashion e-comm in India

3. Myntra to offer 1 mn styles from about 7,000 brands at the 'Big Fashion Festival'

4. Maharashtra government honors VIP as 'Best Innerwear Brand' for 2021-22

5. Nike strengthens retail presences with new store at DLF Mall of India,Noida

Return to homepage

Amazon posted very strong sales during its Prime Day event held in the country in August and its ongoing Diwali sales were also off to a good start.

The US-based online retailer posted a 37 per cent YoY growth in international sales to $25.2 billion in the quarter ended September 30, while profits from the international segment shot up to $407 million.

In comparison, Amazon’s international sales in the third quarter of 2019 stood at $18.3 billion on a loss of $386 million. Olsavsky said high volumes and leverage in markets like the UK and Germany were creating profits in the international segment ahead of schedule.

He added that investment in its international business, including in India, should get back to previous levels once the pandemic subsides.

Its international business has turned profitable only after the Covid-19 pandemic, having made a rare operating profit of $345 million in the second quarter.

Overall, Amazon reported record sales in the three-month period, with revenue growing by 37 per cent to $96.2 billion and profit almost trebling to $6.3 billion, on strong sales, resurgence of digital advertising and robust performance of its cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services.

Apparel brand Indian Terrain has launched a line of T-shirts, eight each in men’s and boy’s wear, which will carry the Fairtrade stamp, a first for a high-street clothes retailer. Fairtrade is a seal of sustainability in the end-to-end production process of a product, ranging from agri goods to crafts.

To get this seal, companies are required to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price). Fairtrade believes this addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which tends to discriminate against the poorest, weakest producers.

For a burgeoning group of consumers who now shop their values, the seal is an easy way to identify a brand’s production practices. In the T-shirts launched by Indian Terrain, its provenance is known from the cotton fields in Surendar Nagar in Gujarat to the mills that spin the yarn, to the fabric-maker as well.

By March next, Indian Terrain expects to launch a range of shirts with the Fairtrade stamp, says Joint MD, Vidyuth Rajagopal. The products stamped such will be at a 10 per cent premium to other products, a small price to pay to follow sustainable practices, he says. In two to three years’ time, the brand expects at least 50 per cent of apparel in its stores to come from sustainable sources.