13 September 2022, Mumbai:

Dollar Industries always tries to maintain the EBITDA margin at 16 or 17 percent.

Big Boss is the flagship brand. The premium product now accounts for around 42 percent of Dollar’s total turnover and the economy range is around 58 percent. Until now, the company had a very limited presence in the women’s innerwear category.

But this year Dollar has already launched brassiere in the Missy segment and has also launched Kurtis. Some more products are lined up.

The garment and hosiery company has been able to align itself with its growth trajectory as it has witnessed a greater demand for its products in the market.

In October, Dollar Industries launched its first exclusive brand outlet in Ayodhya and also plans to launch similar outlets pan-India. It would continue to focus on increasing its reach and range at the retail level to grow further. The dollar has managed to strike the right balance between employees’ safety and efficiency.

Despite limitations, the company has overcome hurdles and managed to maintain the demand-supply ratio. With a revamped brand identity, India’s leading organisation in hosiery and knitwear strengthened its digital and e-commerce presence.

Dollar focused on a 360-degree communication strategy and also created a lot of buzz with the launch of its new Bigboss, Missy, and Ultra TVCs.

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09 September 2022, Mumbai:

IndyaLuxe’s festive season campaign highlights the beauty of the lifelong bonds that a bride shares with her friends, sisters, bridesmaids.

Indya’s campaigns celebrate the various facets of womanhood. While previously the brand’s films have spoken of how the new age global Indian woman proudly owns her heritage and traditions while chasing her aspirations, this campaign aims to strike an emotional chord by shedding light on female friendships and sisterhood.

The campaign is led by a digital film that encapsulates the sentiments and moods of a bride and her bridesmaids through all the functions of her wedding. Laced with nostalgia, the film talks about their journey and shared experiences that bind them together in friendship and love. It shows the girls reminiscing the laughter and tears, victories and failures, and special moments that go on to become precious memories.

Since its inception in 2012, High Street Essentials has emerged as one of India’s leading omnichannel fashion houses. Aimed at the modern Indian woman, the company has two brands under its wing. While FabAlley is a rapid fashion brand for western apparel and accessories, Indya presents a line of modern Indian wear. The company’s latest offering IndyaLuxe aims to tap the wedding guest market with a line of heavily detailed, premium occasion wear.

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06 September 2022, Mumbai:

Featured as one of the top 10 retailers in Asia, the $100 billion plus Reliance Industries is in an enviable position in the retail sector. Headed by Isha Ambani with the able support of her father Mukesh Ambani, the conglomerate’s consumer division was valued at over $25 billion as of March 31, 2022. The retail division has been acknowledged as a major driver of India’s retail market estimated at $850 billion.

Focusing on an oimni channel approach

Reliance’s sectorial figures are impressive. In fiscal 2021-22, almost 2,500 stores were added, with a whopping 42 million sq. ft. of operational area. With 200 million registered customers, 520 million walk-ins, 4.5 billion online visits that is registering a 2.3 per cent increase year-on-year and 600,000 online order deliveries, makes Reliance’s Retail an act difficult to match. JioMart alone covers 260 towns across the country, catering to fast moving consumables that are attractively priced and offer exceptional value-for-money deals.

Mukesh Ambani expressed confidence in his daughter’s leadership, strategic skills and ability to guide the retail division to greater heights. Retail advisory consultant Pankaj Renjhen lauded the conglomerate’s decision to expand further in the retail sector as it already has a robust distribution and point-of-sale network in place. Renjhen points out, as India is clearly divided into brand and value conscious consumers Reliance has an inherent advantage to cater to both with their extensive portfolio of brands and products.

5G network to drive up business

Unlike many brands, Reliance Retail does not feel that the writing is on the wall for brick-and-mortar although it is focusing on driving e-commerce on a grand scale. The commitment of $25 billion towards the soon-to-be launched Jio 5G network will further consolidate and strengthen the e-commerce division. The Jio 5G network has claimed to be the fastest in roll-out as it intends to go nation-wide by the end of 2022. As India has the world’s largest WhatsApp market with nearly 500 million users, Jio 5G will play this to the advantage of Reliance Retail. The tie-up with Meta is another advantage the division is confident about, leveraging its massive outreach across all segments within India.

Reliance Retail’s omnichannel platform Ajio is a big beneficiary of this robust online-driven strategy. A much-loved online fashion destination, Ajio has achieved the dream of fashion retailers – repeat purchases account for 80 per cent of its sales. The e-commerce initiative Ajio Business is partnered with merchants across 3,500 towns, providing them access to 8,000 regional, national and in-house labels. The year ending March 31, 2022 yielded sales over 430 million garments. As demand for luxury and premium brands grow in India, Ajio is in a good place as Reliance has a glittering portfolio of international fashion brands as their local distributors.

However, high-end Indian fashion labels in its portfolio haven’t had a dream run at all. A cumulative loss of Rs 119 crores has the organization restructuring its strategy to either nurture or discontinue these loss-making labels.

As the festive season starts and continues until the end of the year, Reliance Retail is out there penetrating new segments, retaining and boosting its customer base and most of all, ruling the roost with a firm hand.

13 September 2022, Mumbai:

Trent plans an accelerated store expansion program across Westside, Zudio, and Star Markets.

Trent currently has 200 Westside stores and 233 Zudio stores. Westside opened in 1998 and currently 100 per cent of sales in both Westside and Zudio are through private brands.

The company is seeing higher customer walk-ins and higher bill values as customers are coming back after a long gap. During the pandemic, Trent LTD realigned priorities and focused on future growth drivers of the business by aggressively signing properties during the two years.

As a result Trent opened 125 stores across all formats in fiscal ’22. Efficiencies are being driven in the supply chain to reduce the impact of inflation on customers. Trent believes in meeting the shopping needs of customers by being available both online and in-store. Trent continues to focus on in-house brands but is open to evaluating designer brands as and when any interesting opportunity presents itself.

The food retailing business under Star offers a curated assortment of products including FMCG, staples, hardlines, apparel and a comprehensive fresh offering. West Style Club has completed a year and added 1.4 million members in fiscal ’22 alone, with the total now at over seven million members.

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08 September 2022, Mumbai:

W’s new campaign positions the brand as a go-to festive wear brand for women who believe in standing out instead of blending in.

The campaign showcases distinct head-to-toe looks for various occasions that makes a W woman look differentiated in every setting. W draws insights from consumers’ aspirations. The festive collection offers unique festive-fusion styles for the contemporary Indian woman. It features an exquisite Insta Sari, a one-piece modern avatar of the traditional sari; Duo Dress, a fusion dress with a layered jacket or an attached top for that edge around festivities and the kimono jumpsuit, an all-in-one ensemble.

The festive collection comes in vibrant hues of blue, red, green, pink and earthy tones of grey and also includes offerings from the brand’s new categories, namely W foot-apparel, a vegan and cruelty-free make-up range, W Beauty and W Jewel wear.

W is a brand under the umbrella of TCNS Clothing, which is India’s leading women’s branded apparel company. W was launched in 2002. The company designs, manufactures, markets and retails a wide portfolio of women’s branded apparel across multiple brands. The company currently sells its products through 616 exclusive brand outlets, 2,422 large format store outlets and 1,098 multi-brand outlets across India.

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05 September 2022, Mumbai:

Flipkart is India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace. Bebe is an American fashion brand.

Customers can choose from a range of chic styles across apparel and accessories. The Bebe selection includes tops, dresses, hats, co-ord sets, denim, sleepwear, activewear, and lingerie.

Flipkart works closely with a growing number of national, international, and regionally-renowned fashion brands and sellers in different ways. This includes identifying opportunities to connect them with consumers across India through the online marketplace, leveraging the power of technology, scaling their presence, and diversifying existing product portfolios.

With the introduction of Bebe on its platform, Flipkart is also gearing up for several exciting launches lined up for customers this festive season. Flipkart would enable Bebe to reach out to a new set of shoppers through Flipkart’s reach in smaller towns and cities in the country. This launch aligns with Flipkart’s priority to continuously expand its fashion portfolio and make the latest trends accessible to fashion-seekers across the country.

The past two years have witnessed a tremendous shift in consumer preferences when it comes to fashion, as it deepens to new niche categories such as athleisure. People across India, from metros to rural regions, are seeking to upgrade their wardrobes for the festive season.

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13 September 2022, Mumbai:

Max Fashion’s store at Nagpur has an all-new and refreshing world class shopping experience for customers.

The Max store provides customers a one-stop shop for international styles at great prices. Spread across 13,771 sqft, the store offers more than 12,000 designs across different categories of apparel, footwear and accessories offering the best fashion solutions for everyone. The store provides an international shopping experience with dedicated sections for men, women, youth and children, making shopping a pleasurable experience.

Max Fashion has innovative, forward-looking business strategies to mark its dominance in the value fashion market.Max retails out its own private label merchandise which is created by a team of in-house designers who are exposed to international fashion trends and excel in tailoring the styles to suit Indian sensibilities. The chain currently has over 400 stores across 170 cities and plan to expand its retail footprint further. Max’s brand vision is to democratize fashion for the contemporary middle class by offering global fashion trends at amazing prices.

Max Fashion offers a wide range of the latest fashion merchandise, spacious trial rooms, state-of-the-art digital interface and a more convenient billing process design, thus ensuring a wholesome and effortless shopping experience for its customers.

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08 September 2022, Mumbai:

Almo is a Gurugram-based men’s loungewear brand. It is increasing its presence across online marketplaces and plans to soon enter the offline space.

Almo was launched amid the pandemic with the aim of reinventing the men’s essential wear experience.The firm, which began its journey with men’s underwear, went on to launch micromodal trunks. Almo soon expanded into the athleisure category—a segment that saw massive growth amid the work-from-home lockdown days—with T-shirts and shorts. Almo wants to position itself not just as an innerwear brand but as an all-round men’s apparel brand in the premium space.

Almo currently delivers 15,000 to 20,000 pieces of apparel every month through digital channels. About 70 per cent of orders come through its own website; the others are from Myntra and Amazon. The brand is in the process of increasing its presence across marketplaces. It has started selling in the US through Amazon, and is also available on Nykaa.

Almo is growing 20 per cent month on month andhas raised a seed round of $1.9 million from Inflection Point Venture and AngelList.

The Indian innerwear market is growing by 13 per cent a year.

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03 September 2022, Mumbai:

Indian cricketer Jasprit Bumrah is the brand ambassador for Performax.

This is an active wear brand from Reliance Retail’s fashion and lifestyle portfolio. With this association, Performax aims at being a leading global sportswear brand and is banking on Bumrah’s popularity across the globe to drive sales of its products. This association is among the first in a series of initiatives Reliance plans to undertake toward establishing Performax as the preferred active wear brand for customers.

Performax specializes in active wear merchandise and offers a wide range of options across footwear, apparel, and accessories categories, among others. Currently, the brand has a presence across over 1000 stores in over 330 cities.

The global activewear market is growing at a CAGR of 6.5 per cent. The market is helped by a global cultural shift toward health and fitness. Companies are favoring a casual dress code and consumers are demanding more comfortable clothing.Spacer fabric plays an important role in creating padding and support. In the past, sports bras were made using a spacer fabric knitted in a uniform thickness, and would add additional padding for support or to create a push-up effect. With the new generation of spacer fabric technology – the sculpted spacer – manufacturers can knit in a way that corresponds to the natural size and shape of women’s bodies, enhancing comfort with form-fitting support.

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02 September 2022, Mumbai

Miniklub is one of India’s leading babywear brands that offers a thoughtfully crafted range of apparel and baby care products.

The target audience is newborns to eight-year-olds.MiniKlub’s offerings include newborn essentials, baby wear, children’s fashion, footwear, toys, travel, baby care, and much more.

Incepted in 2013, MiniKlub, from the house of First Steps Babywear, has emerged as a fast-growing omnichannel brand with a presence in over 450 plus multi-brand outlets, leading e-retailers, and exclusive kidswear brand stores - both physical and online. It is present in 26 cities with 45 exclusive brand stores. Bangalore alone has ten stores.

Inspired by the childhood spirit, Miniklub takes the utmost care while designing products for the comfort and safety of babies. Miniklub also takes pride in following a sustainable manufacturing process while bringing the best quality products to the market. The retailer has a presence on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Myntra, Flipkart, and Ajio.

By 2023, children’s wear retail is projected to constitute almost 22 percent of the total apparel business in India. This market in India is mostly dominated by private labels -- big retailers, international brands, and just a handful of home-grown mono brands. Organised brands comprise only a minuscule of the overall children’s wear market.

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