Lifestyle brand Eume has partnered with Indian Premier League (IPL) team Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as their official mask partner for the upcoming 2020 IPL season.

As part of the association, Eume will be providing CSK players and their support staff with protective gear like masks and more. The brand is banking on the popularity of the CSK and IPL which is the most-watched sports broadcast to strengthen its presence and expects sales to pick up during the IPL. ommunity.”

The brand has launched special edition masks, similar to the ones worn by their players which are currently being sold on all leading e-commerce platforms and Eume’s website. These masks will play a pivotal role in keeping the teams safe during the pandemic while significantly contributing to the sporting.

Praveen Khandewal, Secretary, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has appealed to Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs to advise banks not to charge any interest or penalty from traders as COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted a loss of about Rs 19 lakh crore to the Indian retail industry in the past five-months.

According to Khandelwal, the pandemic had resulted in such a great turmoil for domestic trade that even after ‘Unlock-4', traders across the country are depressed. The retail market is facing an acute financial crisis as payments for the supplies made in November-December is still pending and there is no hope of its early realization.

Domestic trade is passing through its worst period in the current century and immediate steps need to be taken to prevent retail shops from closing their shutters permanently.

Inner wear maker VIP Clothing has added reusable masks and N95 masks for frontline workers and healthcare professionals to its product portfolio. A month ago, the Indian brand had forayed into safety wear category with the launch of affordable masks for general public to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

Under this new venture, the company will produce 3-5 lakh units of masks per month and take it to Tier 1 and 2 cities. To extend its reach, the masks will be retailed on the company’s online platform followed by marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart and offline stores.

VIP Clothing is leading Indian company engaged in manufacturing and marketing of innerwear. The company markets well-known brands like VIP Innerwear, Frenchie, Frenchie X, and VIP Feelings and all of their sub brands. VIP Clothing Limited's brands and their extensions occupy leadership positions with significant market shares in the respective categories.

VIP Clothing is present throughout the spectrum of innerwear industry, with VIP innerwear in budget and economy segment straddling across all demographic segments. Frenchie is the generic brand in briefs market which owns crown of transformation of traditionally conservative innerwear market. Frenchie X is present in the premium segment for youth where most of the action is seen as lot of international brands are trying to enter.

In the upcoming festive season, Amazon India aims to focus on the safety of employees and delivery people, reliability for customers and helping sellers get back on their feet, says Manish Tiwary, Vice-President. Compared to February, Amazon is seeing a 50-60 per cent increase in new seller registrations. The e-commerce platform expects more registrations as more and more sellers want to sell online. The e-tailer is not adding too many new categories as it is focused on meeting the existing spike in demand for dog and cat toys. It is also witnessing a great spike in demand for essential clothes like undergarments, t-shirts or shorts.

Amazonbusiness.in, which serves small MSME business customers, has become very active during this period. Earlier, these customers would go to the wholesale market to buy paper, tea, laptops etc for their office. Now they are moving to Amazon Business.

Page Industries reported a net loss of Rs 40 crore ($5.5 million) in the first quarter ended June 2020, as against a net profit of Rs 111 crore it reported in the corresponding period a year ago. The company’s revenue for the quarter under review plummeted 66 percent to Rs 285 crore due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Despite the slowdown, Page Industries remains optimistic about the future as it has opened 80 percent of its multi-brand outlets, 96 percent of exclusive brand outlets (EBOs), and 90 percent of large format stores across the country.

While this quarter saw a significant impact of the COVID-19 lockdowns, the operations partially resumed from May. The company is witnessing an increasing trend of sales with greater demand in e-commerce and athleisure product category.There is a huge potential market for all its product categories. The company has always continued to invest in its brands, both online and offline, as well as at point-of-sale. In addition to its strong business presence and robust balance sheet, it continues to strengthen the business across all facets.

Page Industries is the exclusive licensee of Jockey International Inc and Speedo International Ltd in India. The company has over 750 exclusive-brand outlets for Jockey and around 40 outlets for Speedo, spread across 150 cities in India.

British Fashion Council (BFC) has announced the provisional schedule for London Fashion Week (LFW) September 2020. The gender neutral showcase will run from September 17-22 2020 and include both digital activations on www.londonfashionweek.co.uk and physical events, adhering to Government guidelines on social distancing.

The schedule will host over 80 designers including 40 womenswear, 15 menswear, 20 menswear & womenswear and 5 accessories brands. There will be a total of 50 digital only activations, 21 physical and digital, 7 physical only and 3 designers who will activate through a physical evening event only.

This season, the schedule has been split into three sections and includes brands showing digitally, physically or both. All digital activations, will be accessible via www.londonfashionweek.co.uk.

The BFC worked very closely with DCMS to establish guidelines on social distancing to guarantee the safety of both the guests and those working at the physical events.

LFW September 2020 will kick off with Burberry, hosting a livestream on September 17, 2020.

Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has partnered The Times Group for promoting apparel products in India and abroad. This association will help strengthen both domestic and international markets, says A Sakthivel, Chairman, AEPC at a webinar on ‘Global and Domestic Marketing Opportunities’.

The Times Group team has built an ecosystem both within India and abroad to promote brands and products on a variety of media platforms to capture a large customer base spread across the world.

It has become a one-stop shop for all kinds of marketing communications through platforms like print, TV, radio, outdoor and online with their exclusive partnerships with reputed organisations in almost all the countries.

Several apparel exporters expressed their desire to strengthen their customer base in the usual markets of the UK, US, Europe, Canada, Japan and Australia, and also explore smaller markets like in Africa and South America. AEPC member-exporters have moved into the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) segment to en-cash the positive sentiment towards doing business with India, said Sakthivel

Manish Tiwary, Vice-President-Consumer Business, Amazon India has been given the additional mandate of the seller service unit. Amazon India’s Vice President Gopal Pillai, who had relocated to India from Seattle in 2015, will be returning to the US after the five-year stint.

Manish Tiwary, vice-president (consumer business), will take over Pillai's responsibilities, it added.

Amit Agarwal will continue as global senior vice-president and country head for Amazon India, as it remains focused on being a digital catalyst to transform quality of lives and livelihoods across India, and unleashing the country's potential in the 21st century

A 20-year veteran at fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) giant Hindustan Unilever, Tiwary had joined Amazon India in 2016 and succeeded Samir Kumar who had decided to move back to Amazon's Seattle headquarters at that time.

Tiwary has been leading the consumer business, including category management portfolio and brand partnerships across verticals. With the expanded role, he will now also oversee seller services on the marketplace.

In a webinar, Sakthivel, President, AEPC said that India quickly emerged, due to the COVID-19 crisis, as the second biggest exporter of medical textiles. The global medical textile industry is estimated to hit 23,752.66 million dollars by 2025, according to estimates.

Sakthivel further said multinational corporations are moving their investment from China to India because of Coronavirus. According to him, this will open up new dimensions to India and the country will be able to collect several million dollars from Europe, Australia and America.

Greg Ruggles, CEO, Several Company Firms, acknowledged clothing companies are searching for ways to switch from China to other countries due to the divergences between the US and China. He said India is able to produce various kinds of textiles. The online company has provided anyone from small retailers to clothing producers with an international forum.

So far, AEPC has trained and employed 12 lakh people across India in the garbage market, according to Roopak Vasishtha, CEO, CDG, Apparel Made Ups & Home Furnishing Sector Expertise Council (AMHSSC). The Council aims to recognize migrant workers who have returned to their hometowns to obtain expertise and to register them with the qualification scheme of the government.