18 February 2023, Mumbai

For the third quarter Dollar’s net profit reduced by 80 per cent compared to the same period of the last fiscal year. Revenue from operations was down by 25 per cent during the third quarter.

Due to the shift in seasonality and cyclical slowdown in discretionary demand in winter products, coupled with volatile raw material prices and high cost inventory, the company’s third quarter sales and margin were adversely affected.

However things are getting stable and channel inventory has also been reduced due to low volume offtake by business partners in this quarter. High inventory cost has also been optimised. With these, the company is expecting good demand in the coming quarters due to early festival sales in the fourth quarter. Marketing spends have also been optimised and the company doesn’t have any major campaigns in the coming quarter.

The innerwear and knitted garment brand based in Kolkata now has 12 exclusive brand outlets across India. The premium product now accounts for around 42 per cent of Dollar’s total turnover and the economy range is around 58 per cent.

Dollar’s flagship project Project Lakshya is doing well and has increased the share of revenue contribution in sales from seven per cent to 17 per cent. This has led the company to strengthen its sales force for smoother operations.

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14 February 2023, Mumbai

Wacoal’s products are built on the paradigm of sustainability and a sense of responsibility toward the environment and its elements.

Women’s lingerie brand Wacoal is in 25 large format stores and has 21 exclusive brand outlets. The brand is available across major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, and Nagpur.

The plan is to expand in Tier II cities. Wacoal is on online e-commerce platforms like Myntra, Nykaa, Nykaa Fashion, Ajio, AjioLuxe, Amazon, and Tata Cliq, apart from its own website. Currently, the brand has a customer loyalty rate of more than 60 percent in the online space. Its online-to-offline mix is 15 percent, it plans to boost to 30 percent in the next financial year.

Omnichannel marketing would play a vital role in the optimum utilization of inventory across various channels. The current share of Wacoal in the luxury segment is 15.2 percent. Wacoal has tripled its revenue in the last two years and now with the pandemic losing its grip it is further looking at tripling these numbers in the new financial year.

The brand is targeting a turnover of Rs 100 crores and looking at opening more than 100 points of sales this year, which will take the total count to more than 200.

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16 February 2023, Mumbai

For the third quarter Rupa’s net profit fell by 91 percent. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down by 46 per cent as against the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

Despite the poor performance in the third quarter Rupa is optimistic of posting strong numbers in the coming quarters and is expecting revenue to grow five times by fiscal year 2024 from fiscal 2022. The company will roll out 150 more exclusive brand outlets in the next two years.

There will be a focus on new emerging markets to double current exports and increase share in the premium category. Additionally Rupa also plans to launch in the global online market of UAE and increase brand presence across 1000 plus point of sales in the next two years.

Rupa is one of the largest knitwear brands in India that produces innerwear, casual wear, thermal wear, and sleepwear for men, women, and kids. The brand is looking to strengthen its focus on modern trade channels even as it looks to grow its turnover.

Modern trade outlets contribute ten per cent of the company’s total topline and have been clocking double-digit growth. Rupa’s expansion strategy continues in the quest to strengthen its retail footprint nationwide.

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14 February 2023, Mumbai

Allen Solly has opened a children’s wear store in Lucknow.

The store has a bright, white interior and open façade, with central islands showcasing a wide selection of late winter outerwear. Allen Solly’s deer’s head logo is displayed throughout the store and the brand’s seasonal boys’ collection features bright, sporty jackets, graphic sweatshirts, and thick flannel shirts and for girls puffer jackets, tutu-style dresses, and pastel T-shirts.

Founded in 1744, Allen Solly was bought by Madura Fashion in the 1990s and launched in India in 1993. The Madura Fashion business was subsequently acquired by Aditya Birla in 2001. The brand was originally known for its men’s formal wear and it later diversified its product range to include women’s and children’s wear, among other categories.

The children’s apparel market in India is growing at five per cent a year. The market is primarily driven by the rising number of nuclear and double-income households in India. Strong economic growth in recent years and increasing purchasing power, along with the changing spending patterns of parents with an increasing inclination toward providing their children with enhanced comfort and convenience, is boosting the sales of branded and high-quality children’s apparel.

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10 February 2023, Mumbai

Levi Strauss is scaling up investment in its stores and innovation in India.

The denim maker sees India as a top priority for sales growth amid fears of recession in many developed countries. Levi’s came to India nearly three decades ago and now has more than 400 stores across 150 cities.

Levi’s started its operations in India by forming a wholly owned subsidiary known as Levi’s Strauss India in 1994 and has grown invariably since then. The brand aims to strengthen its physical footprint in the country with better stores and consumer experience.

For instance Levi’s has relaunched its Chandigarh store. The new store, spread across 4045 sqft, in the brand’s cutting edge NextGen store format that is designed to give consumers an authentic and consistent expression of the Levi’s brand. It is digitally enhanced and with a lighter, modern and more open design elevating the experience for consumers to explore the store and collections.

By upsizing one of India’s best-performing Levi’s stores, the brand endeavours to bring consumers a seamless shopping experience conducive to finding the perfect pair of Levi’s jeans.

As the world’s second most-populated country, India is an attractive market for apparel brands, especially with youngsters increasingly embracing western-style clothing.

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16 February 2023, Mumbai

Madame’s new autumn/winter 2023 collection incorporates the latest fashion trends. The range includes outerwear in daring shades, chunky knitwear, practical leather pieces, the newest denim styles, including wide-leg pants and fitted jackets.

The collection offers something for everyone, from elegant casual wear to opulent party attire. Madame believes that fashion is a celebration of individual style and expression and the autumn/winter collection embodies this ethos, with a range of pieces that cater to every style preference and occasion.

The women’s fashion brand aims at achieving a 33 per cent increase in its overall business in the forthcoming financial year. Madame is leaving no stone unturned to deliver a unique and immersive shopping experience, investing in the latest technology to make sure customers get the best of both worlds – a virtual store that provides a seamless shopping experience and the chance to showcase their individual style in the metaverse.

Madame has partnered with Trace Network Labs to give an experience of a digital clothing store in the metaverse, becoming the first apparel brand to do so. The virtual store allows customers to experience immersive shopping. This partnership marks Madame’s innovative approach to online shopping and has revolutionized the fashion industry.

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14 February 2023, Mumbai

Avantra by Trends has launched an outlet in Bangalore. This is the ethnic wear brand’s sixth store in Bangalore and the 28th store across India.

Avantra opened its fifth outlet in Bangalore just two weeks ago. Reliance Retail launched Avantra by Trends in September 2021 as an exclusive sari and women’s ethnic wear concept store.

The first flagship store in Bangalore was spread across 9,500 sq ft. Followed by the official launch, the ethnic wear brand forayed into jewellery, accessories, and tailoring services. It has also collaborated with regional weaver clusters and third-party brands, including Nalli Silks and Pothys.

Avantra by Trends is positioned as a pan-India brand that is present in metros, Tier l, ll, and lll markets. It is home to India's finest ethnic wear and is a culmination of tradition, craftsmanship and fashion. Since the launch, Avantra by Trends has established its retail presence across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, and Uttar Pradesh.

Founded in the year 2006, Reliance Retail is an Indian retail company and a subsidiary of Reliance Industries. It retails food, groceries, jewellery, apparel, footwear, toys, home improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements under various sub-brands.

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09 February 2023, Mumbai

For the third quarter Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail’s profit fell by 92 per cent.

Soaring marketing expenses hit the apparel retailer. The period saw an increase in marketing investments post a hiatus of more than two years since Covid as the company reinvigorated its focus towards brand building and strengthening consumer connect.

Total expenses rose more than 31 per cent outpacing a nearly 20 per cent rise in revenue from operations. The Birla group company has been investing heavily to build its store presence by partnering with several local and international brands such as high-end wedding wear label Sabyasachi, French luxury retailer Galeries Lafayette and emerging local names Bewakoof and BerryLush.

Meanwhile, sales at its Madura Fashion and Lifestyle unit more than doubled. Revenue from the Pantaloons business, which the group bought from Future Group, rose about 8.7 per cent. Pantaloons was hit by sluggish growth in smaller towns, transient inflationary pressures in the value segment and a slip in sales after the Hindu festival of Diwali mid-November.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail which has an elegant bouquet of leading fashion brands and retail formats houses brands such as Allen Solly, Pantaloons and Van Heusen. Aditya Birla remains optimistic about the overall consumption of fashion products for the rest of the year.

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15 February 2023, Mumbai

Lux aims at a turnover of Rs 1000 crores by fiscal year 2026.

The company had clocked a turnover of Rs 550 crores in fiscal year 2022 and has been growing at a rate of ten per cent to 12 per cent over the last three years. The knitwear brand will beef up its presence in South India. Secondly, it has launched a new category for boys’ innerwear, Lux Cozi Boys.

In fiscal year 2023, the company earned a revenue of Rs 20 crores from this brand, which is only three percent of its total revenue. The target is that by fiscal year 2026, the boys’ innerwear brand should earn a revenue of Rs 100 crores which is ten per cent of its targeted turnover of Rs 1000 crores.

Finally, the company sees the need to increase the growth of its men’s innerwear category which is the company’s highest revenue earner. To increase the growth of the men’s wear segment, Lux has roped in Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez to endorse men’s innerwear. This is probably for the first time an actress has been roped in to endorse a men’s wear brand.

Lux reduced prices in the December 2022 to January 2023 period as yarn prices have softened and has no immediate plans to increase prices.

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 11 February 2023, Mumbai

Cantabil plans to open 80 to 90 stores every year. The apparel manufacturer and retailer opened 19 new exclusive retail stores during the third quarter in different states including J&K, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana.

With multiple store openings, Cantabil Retail has reached a 439 store mark and plans to continue expanding across India this year. Cantabil is focusing heavily on providing the best-in-class shopping experience both in-store and online. The all-new Cantabil stores represent the future of retail experience for its customers, as they offer a full range of formalwear, partywear, wedding collections, casuals, and ultracasual clothing for men, women, and children in the middle to upper-income brackets under one roof.

Revenues from same stores played an instrumental role in delivering the desired growth in financial performance. Apart from this, the addition of new stores has also significantly contributed towards superior performance and provides an expanding platform to support the company’s strategic growth objectives. For the third quarter the company’s revenue was Rs163 crores with a net profit of Rs 27 crores. For the nine-month period, revenues were Rs 380 crores with ebitda and pat of Rs 123 crores and Rs 50 crores respectively.

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