One of the most resilient sectors during the pandemic, the Indian hosiery sector has however bowed down to the pressures of second wave led lockdowns. As per a Textile Value Chain report, the pandemic has been very unkind to the sector with the industry facing mass labor exodus during the first wave. A similar fate awaits the sector during the second wave if it fails to reassure laborers of their livelihoods. Therefore, to boost production and contain virus spread, the sector needs to convince laborers to stay back.

Reemergence makes meeting remote demands impossible

The Indian hosiery sector is expected to grow at 2.5 per cent CAGR from 2020-25. It holds great significance for both men and women. However, its importance to women manifold as innerwear is considered an individual’s second skin here. The re-emergence of the pandemic therefore, has dealt a huge blow to the sector’s growth as retailers have failed to cater to the demands of remote consumers. This has led to a huge fall in demand leading to a decline in cotton prices.

The complete halt in production has hit smaller players most as they face an acute shortage of liquidity and working capital and soaring raw material costs. These manufacturers mostly rely on cash, and credit and lockdowns and labor migrations have created a huge credit crunch by halting production across the country.

Vaccinations, COVID appropriate behavior to help

A way these players can survive the present crisis is by innovating their product offerings and manufacturing techniques, feel experts. Though the pandemic has restricted physical movement, players can explore their digital capabilities to provide consumers with an online mode of transactions. Digitization can also help hosiery retailers expand their consumer base and boost sales. To fight this deadly virus, the Indian hosiery industry needs to also promote vaccinations and COVID appropriate behavior amongst its members.

As the apparel retail sector struggled to meet sales targets due to the ongoing pandemic a study reveals kids wear segment emerged on top last year with over 200 per cent order volume growth, and a market share increase of 17 per cent in FY21 from 3 per cent in previous year. The study ‘Fashion E-commerce Report’ done by e-commerce supply chain focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Unicommerce analysed fashion trends for FY21 and FY20 with a sample size of over 70 million orders. The study also highlighted online fashion grew from strength to strength in Tier-II, III cities.

Online fashion retail gains strength

The Unicommerce study shows online fashion continued to grow with order volume growing 51 per cent and gross merchant value growing 45 per cent in FY21 compared to previous financial year. The faster volume growth as compared to GMV led to a marginal decline of 4 per cent in the average order value, the report found.

What’s more, almost 118 per cent order volume growth was rooted from Tier-II cities while 102 per cent volume growth came from Tier III and IV cities. Moreover, adoption of omnichannel sales across majority of brand stores also rose due to the pandemic. While a majority almost 55-60 per cent omnichannel orders are still being generated from brand websites, the marketplaces have grown omnipresence significantly in the last 15-18 months from being a negligible contributor last year to 40-45 per cent of overall omnichannel orders at present.

As per Kapil Makhija, CEO, Unicommercem "Fashion segment is one of the biggest contributors to e-commerce industry of India with the highest order volume. This report dives deep into the fashion industry to analyse the trends in online fashion space. It’s a unique report that sheds light on changing consumer buying patterns and preferences, rising adoption of D2C and omnichannel and new segments in the online fashion space.”

The study highlights companies are now fulfilling 20-25 per cent of their omnichannel orders from brand store, indicating increased adoption of omnichannel sales across majority of stores.

Women’s wear tops e-com sales

Another interesting trend that emerged from the study is that women's wear continued to dominate e-commerce fashion market with a 50 per cent market share in FY21 and 30 per cent order volume growth in FY21 as compared to previous financial year. The order volume of western wear grew 57 per cent in FY21 compared to a year ago, accounting for 65 per cent market share in FY21.

However, it’s the men's apparel segment which is the highest contributor to the overall western wear segment accounting for 55 per cent market share of overall western wear in FY21 and 40 per cent order volume growth. Kids western wear segment reported a sharp order volume growth of over 300 per cent as market share increased from 3 per cent in FY-20 to 28 per cent in FY21.

Meanwhile the study also shows ethnic wear segment reported an order volume growth of 41 per cent in FY21, mostly led by women’s apparel segment and constitutes a 95 per cent market share of overall ethnic wear in FY21. It reported 43 per cent order volume growth. Casual wear continued to be a preferred choice but formal wear also gained momentum with over double order volume growth.

Darlie Koshy, Director General & CEO, ATDC India has quit after serving for more than 12 years. Koshi was earlier the Director of National Institute of Design (NID) and also the founding Faculty & Chairperson of NIFT at New Delhi. He Has now moved as the chairman, NISTI (North-India Section of The Textile Institute, Manchester.

At ATDC, Koshy played a key role in a forming new skills scape ‘Skill Pyramid’ from ‘Smart’ at skill levels 1 to 4 and thereafter ATDC-AVI, for skill levels 5 to 7 and higher levels at the Institute of Apparel Management playing a proactive role in the success of ISDS of MOT, GOI. For this, he set up 200 ATDC-Smart centers pan-India to train over 250,000 candidates in five years emerging as the ‘largest skill provider’ for the apparel sector.

A PhD from IIT Delhi and a rank holder in MBA from CUSAT, Koshy is also trained in FIT, Network as a founding faculty member of NIFT. He has authored three books including the “Indian Design Edge” published by Roli Books. He recently also launched his autobiography by the name All By Design :My Tryst with Fashion, Design and Skills

Indian retailers have been on tumultuous journey since March last year. The first COVID-19 wave in March had many retailers scrambling to survive as pandemic- led lockdowns dented most of their incomes. Just as they managed to survive the first wave and recover lost income by the fourth quarter of FY21, they were once again hit by the second wave in March in FY22. Currently, retailers face losses worth almost $30 billion, says Kumar Rajgopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India. In a Money Control report Rajgopalan says, the impact of the lockdown has been felt by all retailers including those involved in food and grocery businesses.

Even malls have suffered losses worth Rs 3,000 crore, adds Shopping Centres Association of India. These retailers don’t expect business to revive in the first quarter of FY22 as consumers are likely to be cautious while spending money. They hope for revival only by the second quarter of FY22.

Curbs hit apparel sales

The RAI survey report released in May shows, though pandemic-led curbs hit the discretionary segment such as sports goods, footwear and jewellery the most, food and grocery segments also suffered. Grocery sales were hit hard as stores were allowed to operate for only limited hours, adds Rajagopalan. Footfalls at Reliance Retail, that houses supermarket chains Reliance Fresh and SMART, declined 35-40 per cent of pre-COVID levels in April, as consumers curtailed non-essential purchases.

Consumers also deferred apparel and footwear purchases. This led to only 15 per cent of the market being operational in May, says Ramesh Kumar Dua, Managing Director, Relaxo Footwear. The company operated only three of its eight production facilities during the lockdown period. However, reopening of factories in the fourth quarter helped double profits from Rs 51.80 last year to Rs 102 crore this year.

Retailers pin hopes on festive demand

To revive lost demand, retailers are once again looking to the upcoming festive season. They consumers to start visiting stores as festive season begin from Onam in August to Christmas in December.

Last year, they witnessed a good recovery post lockdowns and expect a similar experience this year too. Anand Agarwal, CFO, V-Mart Retail adds, retailers expect business to revive from Q2 and get stronger in Q3 and Q4. The early onset of Diwali and Dussehra will help recover lost business, opines Venugopal Nair, CEO, and Managing Director, Shoppers Stop However, this optimism may prove to be short-lived if India is hit by a third COVID-19 wave leading to a re-imposition of lockdowns, say experts.

High streets are an attractive proposition for many retail brands now. A study by Anarock Property Consultants shows, post pandemic retail expansion for many brands will be in high streets across the country. The study reveals from April 2020 to May 2021, brands have finalized 120 retail deals on prominent high streets across the country. These deal sizes range from 400 sq. ft. to up to 35,000 sq. ft.

Apparel brands finalize most deals

Top apparel retailers and large format stores like Pantaloons, Westside, Zudio, Reliance Trends and Max (typically anchor tenants in malls) are now attracted to high streets and looking at opening stores there. Also among the group are Some Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) within the F&B category like: Starbucks, Pizza Hut, KFC, etc.

As Pankaj Renjhen, COO & Joint MD-Anarock Retail explains, “High street markets have been doing very well in post-pandemic times and we are seeing many retail brands eye these locations as a part of their expansion strategy. Well-capitalised retailers with established business models are using their competitive advantage to negotiate good deals to expand their footprint and gain a larger market share.” He goes on to say, what attracts brands to high streets is that they offer a good opportunity with attractively low start-up time, lower cost of operations and less dependency on immediate adjacencies. What’s more, high streets already have a considerable base of footfall traffic. In metros, many retailers are willing to take well-located, road-facing spaces within good catchments rather than sign up at expensive high streets.

What’s more, apparel brands are among the categories who have finalized maximum number of high street lease deals with an over 23 per cent share, followed by F&B at 15 per cent, and jewellery at 12 per cent. Hypermarkets and supermarkets have mostly leased large high street spaces in smaller towns and cities.

The top cities where these brands are attracted and picking up high street spaces are: Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurgaon. The prominent Tier II, III cities in this list are: Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Patiala, and smaller towns in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh like Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior.

Small towns attract big retail

Another trend that has emerged post-pandemic is the importance of small towns for retail expansion. Top hypermarkets and supermarket brands are now actively looking at spreading in Tier II, III, IV cities across the country. One reason is that many smaller towns offer high revenue-growth potential for them. Till now most of these cities shopped from neighbourhood kirana or mom-and-pop stores to meet t heir grocery needs.

The Anarock study shows, there is great demand from retailers - particularly large corporate retail chains - in high streets of Tier II, III, IV cities. This demand is backed by increasing resilience of non-metro customers. With lack of quality retail centres in these cities, demand is focused on high streets. Moreover, the cost of operations in high streets in small cities is more competitive for retailers and for consumers, the familiarity and location convenience of high street retail augurs well.

Retailers like More Retail have mostly leased large areas in smaller cities such as Agra, Faizabad, Muzaffarnagar, and Sitapur in UP and Bhubaneshwar in Orissa. And as Renjhen points out, "Going forward, with limited quality retail stock coming up and in smaller cities' convenience as a key parameter, high streets are a viable solution for retailers to bridge the gap.” He says, except in a few large cities, large-sized retail centres will be difficult to sustain as the pandemic has shrunk the retailer category - both in terms of number of players and store sizes.

The third edition of India Spotlight Report reveals, suspension of manufacturing due to COVID-19 led to a 20 per cent decline in credit borrowings by Indian textile and apparel sector in December 2020. The report released jointly by SIDBI and CRIF High Mark says the textile and apparel sector in India burrowed loans worth Rs 1.62 lakh crore till December 2020. The number of active loans by the month-end stood at 4.26 lakh. The sector also clocked in 8 per cent increase in non-performing assets during the month while export credit dropped 25 per cent Y-o-Y.

MSMEs are India’s top borrowers

As of December 2020, the Indian apparel and textile sector has around 5 lakh burrowers. Almost 95 per cent are concentrated in micro, small and medium segment. Around 80 per cent of India’s burrowers are based in top 13 textile and apparel manufacturing states. Maharashtra has the highest percentage of burrowers with Mumbai having over Rs 10,000 crore credit portfolios as of December 2020.

Considering the sector’s credit requirement, in Budget 2021-22, the Central government introduced a scheme to set up zega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Parks (MITRAs) with plug n play facilities across the country. The government also announced a special economic package in May 2020 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat program for small-scale entities, including weavers and artisans, informs Sivasubramanian Ramann, Chairman and Managing Director, SIDBI. These policies alongwith abundant availability and fair access to raw materials and surplus labor will help boost future development in this sector, feels Navin Chandani, Managing Director & CEO, CRIF India

Public banks give out most loan

Public sector banks cater to most of the financial needs of the textile and apparel sector in India. By December 2020, these banks serviced around 62.61 per cent loans availed by the sector. On the other hand, private banks, NBFCs and foreign banks serviced 23.49 per cent, 8.66 per cent and 1.41 per cent loans respectively.

However, the value of loans serviced by private sector banks was larger at 40.54 per cent followed by public sector banks which serviced loans amounting to 36.59 per cent of the sector’s total borrowings during the year.

Children’s wear brand Littleens has forayed into loungewear with a collection titled ‘Yesteryear Worlde. As per Fashion Network, the collection is designed for staying home this summer and manufactured from plant-based textiles.

Littleens’ new line of sustainable loungewear features western and ethnic style sets for girls and boys with a mix of plain hues and whimsical patterns.

Garments in the collection are made from plant-based fibres including orange peel, rose petals, soya, banana peel, aloe vera, lotus stem, and bamboo. By using these textiles, the brand minimizes production waste in an eco-friendly manner and the fabrics are soft and comfortable to wear, especially for children.

MitaliBhargava, Founder, Littleens says, the primary and essential goal of Littleens is to achieve a healthy coexistence between humans, animals, and the environment. The brand develops products using sustainably farmed materials and mention who made these clothes for you, in what condition they were made. Therefore, highlighting the social aspects of creating a fully ‘sustainable’ collection.

MitaliBhargava launched Littleens in 2020 and also plans to launch a couture gifting range in the near future. The brand’s goal is to achieve a carbon positive production process.

The fourth quarter net profit of fashion and home textile firm Bella Casa Fashion & Retail rose by 94 percent to Rs 2 crore ($274,019as against a net profit of Rs 1 crore it had reported in the year-ago period.

As per Fashion Network, the company’s revenue for the quarter rose by 41 percent to Rs 50 crore, as against a net profit of Rs 45 crore it reported in the corresponding period previous fiscal year.

For the financial year 2020-21, the company’s net profit declined by 41 percent to Rs 5 crore, as against Rs 9 crore during the previous year ended March 2020 while revenue dropped by 21 percent to Rs 129 crore, as against Rs 163 crore during the previous year.

One of India’s largest manufacturers and distributors of home textile products and designer ethnic wear, Bella Casa Fashion & Retail has a network of 80 authorised dealers/wholesalers and reaches out to around 3,000 retailers across the country.

The company also has a strong online presence through its platform and e-commerce companies like Flipkart, Amazon, Ajio, etc

The disruptions caused by continuous lockdowns in India’s retailer sector have been a wakeup call for all brick and mortar stores to adapt themselves to the digital ecosystem. This is especially the case for fashion retailers, the worst affected by the pandemic. Indeed, digital services enable retailers to acquire new customers, improve services to existing customers, and reduce cost of operations even during challenging times like the current pandemic. To explore the full potential of these services, retailers need to constantly innovate on their offerings and take the omnichannel route to enable shoppers to shop anywhere and at any point of time, wrote Sunil Nair, CEO Firework India in Outlook.

Emergence of digitally-competent retailers also benefits customers by providing them a variety of product choices, Nair writes. Digital channels help them form deep connections with retailers. Traditional retailers therefore, need to adopt new technologies for their digital -focused customers.

Social media platforms, livestream help make informed choices

Retailers also need to replace the collection section in their stores with data intelligence. They need to adapt to e-commerce mode of shopping to ensure a more interactive, personalized brand experience. Their stores need to be digitally-equipped to help brands drive sales and optimize costs.

Today’s shoppers are more informed. The availability of multiple sources of information enables them to choose their products more wisely than traditional shoppers. Technologies like e-commerce laced short videos provide them with easy access to product data ensuring a better shopping experience. They also benefit from a combination of shhopable video stories and live stream on retailers’ websites

Such services are increasingly influencing shopping choices of consumers, opines a Deloitte report on Digital Disruption in the Retail of 2020. The report states, over 56 per cent of in-store retail services are now influenced by digital. A 2016 Deloitte Holiday Survey adds, customers research products and their prices before buying. They also discuss product reviews and ratings on social media platforms, which largely influence their purchase decisions.

Positive shopping experience enhances brand loyalty

A customer with a positive shopping experience is likely to spend 140 per cent more on a product than one with poor experience, says the Deloitte Report. They are also likely to remain loyal to the brand for a longer period. Customer satisfaction has had a direct impact on sales growth, product sizes and customization services of 40 per cent of companies

Indeed, the Indian government’s focus on digital adoption and internet and penetration has helped retailers convert 150 million Indian customers into tech-savvy shoppers. They can further strengthen bottom-lines through efficient digital transformation strategies

Bata India’s fourth quarter revenues have declined by 4.8 per cent to Rs 588.9 crore. The company has witnessed a 21.9 per cent Y-o-Y decline in profit after tax to Rs 29.4 crore. The fourth quarter results indicate steady and consistent growth, in line with the quarter’s seasonality. The company has adequate cash reserves and is curbing discretionary expenses to eliminate redundancies and introduce efficiencies in its value chain. It hopes ongoing vaccination to further boost sales.

Bata India’s gross margins during the quarter improved by around 160 basis points (bps) quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to 53.1 per cent. However, on a YoY basis, gross margins declined 570 bps owing to an unfavorable product mix. Subsequently, EBITDA margins declined 340 bps YoY to 19 per cent.

Bata India continues to strengthen e-commerce in Q4FY21 by making a wider portfolio available on all marketplaces. The company has tweaked its product portfolio from formals and fashion categories to casuals, fitness, and essential categories, covering comfortable sneakers, open and sandals styles, says ICICI Securities.

AM Silk, a German fibre inventor, has raised €29 million ($35 million) in Series C funding to make the company’s silk polymers available in industrial quantities to an even broader variety of clients and industries.

AM Silk’s material, Bio steel fibre, is made from a biopolymer based on natural spider silk, a material known for its strength, flexibility and toughness. AMSilk produces Bio steel fibre – made from plant-based raw materials via a bacterial fermentation process – through a closed-loop biotechnological process that means the product is sustainable, with no petroleum inputs.

The company already produces Bios teel for industrial applications as well as within areas of the textiles industry where its high tensile strength is required.

In 2018, for example, the firm partnered with European aerospace corporation Airbus to develop composite materials for the sector.

Through the investment round, Novo Growth, the growth equity arm of Novo Holdings, provided considerable support for AM Silk’s activities.

The brand JADE by Monica & Karishma has launched a new store in Los Angeles. As per Telegraph India, the brand has been designing and creating ensembles for brides in the US for a while now. Its ensembles are handcrafted using the Ek Taar and kasab techniques and are very versatile. They can be adapted beautifully into modern styles.

Launched in October 2008 by designers Monica & Karishma, JADE is today synonymous with discreet luxury and dynamic harmony. Their passion to create timeless pieces representing the traditional Indian crafts in a distinct and refreshing new avatar sets their creations apart.

JADE by Monica & Karishma has, over the years; redefined the bridal couture in India with its avant-garde and ethereal designs. Its bridal collection — A Summer Memoir features masterfully hand-crafted gorgeous pieces that primarily pay attention to comfort, functionality and ease of movement, without compromising on style