17 June 2022, Mumbai:

India’s leading men’s wear fashion brand Barcelona has appointed Bollywood actor SonuSood as its new style icon and brand ambassador. As per an Indian Saga report, the actor will endorse the brand’s range of products across media platforms for its campaign.

Jaimin Gupta, Promoter, the collaboration aims to strengthen the brand’s relations with customers in a meaningful way. The association will give the consumers a greater sense of objective on strength, trust and dependability.”

Barcelona currently is present in 82 exclusive brand outlets (EBO’s) spread across 50+ cities and towns in India. The brand sells menswear products including shirts, T-shirts, denims, suits, blazers, trunks, vests, boxers, tracks, etc. The brand strongly believes in providing customers with high-end fashion products at affordable and economical rates.

16 June 2022, Mumbai:

Footwear major Bata India plans to expand its retail footprint in India by adopting the franchise model and launching new products across categories.

Bouncing back to the pre-pandemic levels of sales, Bata India clocked 11 percent growth in sales during the current fiscal (YTD) up to May, says VidhyaSrinivasan, Chief Financial Officer, Bata India. Bata India registered nearly 35 percent growth in revenues at Rs 2,300 crore during the year ended March 31, 2022, backed by improved consumer sentiments.

The company currently has over 1,600 retail outlets including its own stores (1,266) and over 300 franchises. Besides setting up its own stores across the country, the brand plans to increase the share of the franchise network to over 500 in the next two-to-three years.

Currently present across 1,000 towns in India, Bata India aims to expand to newer towns and cities even while it continues to strengthen its footprint in existing markets.

The company’s continued focus on key thrust areas of franchise and MBO (multi-brand outlets) expansion, consumer-relevant communication, portfolio casualization, and digital footprint expansion has resulted in an increase in footfalls across retail outlets, along with significant growth driven via e-commerce platforms and expansion in Tier III to Tier V towns.

Online sales have grown significantly over the last one to two years and currently contribute nearly 15-16 percent of its total sales, she said.

The company expects double-digit growth in the segment during the current fiscal. It plans to enhance its portfolio in the casual and fashion footwear section across categories.

18 June 2022, Mumbai:

US Polo Association is offering the widest assortment across its dominant categories like shirts, polo T-shirts, jeans, etc at the current16th End of Reason sale on Myntra. As per a Times of India report, the brand went live with over 400 collections. It curated a range of unique offerings across 1,800+ styles for consumers and is also offering over 900+ styles of footwear and more than 100 styles of innerwear and comfort wear.

Myntra’s flagship event, the EORS (End Of Reason Sale) offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for shoppers to explore some of the finest brands out there, in addition to its unique loyalty program benefits, value offers, and so much more. Brands enjoy multiple benefits of partnering with the platform as Myntra’s technology enables them to connect with their consumers online, as well as through the Omni-channel model. In addition to these, propositions like Myntra Insider, M-Live and Myntra Studio, etc., help the brands leverage these platform solutions, to create more engagement and excitement with their consumers on the platform.

US Polo Assn is one such brand association with Myntra that has delighted shoppers with classic essentials like T-shirts, denim, trousers, innerwear, kidswear, etc. In the 16th edition of Myntra’s EORS, US Polo Association made a splash as the title sponsor of the event.

15 June 2022, Mumbai:

After having worked with some most reputed firms in the country and having 20 years of experience in the field of Public Relations, Rahul Mehta has now joined Media Mantra as CEO.

Prior to joining Media Mantra, Mehta has worked with some of the most notable names in the PR industry, including Weber Shandwick, FleishmanHillard, and Kaizzen.

Mehta has also worked across a lot of practice areas, from defense to automobile to B2B and B2C to healthcare, IT, fashion, hospitality, and more.

He aims to leverage that experience and network to help get new clients and get Media Mantra on its next phase of growth. He aims to raise the bar for the agency in the industry.

Apart from conventional PR, he will also focus on the digital with podcasts and specialized content, and innovative storytelling.

13 June 2022, Mumbai:

Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail (ABFRL) is currently on an expansion spree.The company has launched its own ‘house of brands’ entity ‘TMRW’ to support the development of digital fashion and lifestyle brands. To operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group, this entity will build over 30 brands in the next three years.

The move also marks ABFRL’s entry into the D2C segment which is expected to reach $100 billion by 2025. Earlier known for housing a few brands, the company is widening its portfolio to include a larger variety catering to a large number of consumers, says Ankur Bisen, Senior Partner and Head-Food and Retail, Technopak Advisors. The launch will help ABFRL position itself as the next fashion major, Bisen opines. It will be led by Prashanth Alluru, A former Facebook and Bain employee.

Growing importance among newage consumers

TMRW will also make ABFRL competitive with start-ups like the Good Glamm Group and Mensa Brands, etc., and increase the company’s importance amongst newage consumers. The move is being emulated by other companies like Reliance Retail and Myntra.

With a network of over 3,3000 stores across India, ABFRL holds brands like Pantaloons, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, and Allen Solly. It also has collaborations with brands like Forever 21, American Eagle, and Reebok. The retail company has formed strategic partnerships with ethnic wear designers including Sabyasachi, Masaba, and Shantanu & Nikhil.

Significantly ABFRL’s achievements during the year include a 55 percent surge in revenues to Rs 8, 136.22 crores. The company also narrowed its losses to Rs 108.72 crore during the year. Around 68.4 percent of revenue was achieved from Madura Fashion & Lifestyle and the remaining 31.6 percent came from Pantaloons, reveals Bloomberg data.

ABFRL has also built a good consumer portfolio for these brands, says Ambi Parameswaran, Author, and Founder, of Brand-Building.com.

It manages them separately. The new entity will offer these as well as other ethnic brands acquired by ABFRL in the last three years, he adds. The collaborations these brands will enter into will probably be in areas like supply chain, logistics, finance, and HR.

They will focus on building strong individual identities. In 2017, ABFRL shut down its maiden e-commerce venture All About Fashion (ABOF) though the venture was again made available on Flipkart and Myntra in August last year.

Focus on exclusivity

Building a ‘house of brands’ benefits both, large conglomerates and smaller brands acquired by them.

The concept is particularly beneficial to the few niche D2C brands that find it difficult to swim through the complicated multi-layered distribution and retail channels, as it helps them connect directly with customers.

Devangshu Dutta, CEO, of Third Eyesight, affirms, that having a house of brands helps companies launch a variety of product ranges and remain exclusive. It also helps them expand into the established modern and traditional retail formats and cater to a more general audience

Non-compatible with few distribution models

On the other hand, large companies cannot grow their existing brands and products beyond a certain point.

They are compelled to acquire other businesses and brands, Dutta explains. The model also faces other challenges like the non-compatibility of categories with the distribution and supporting multiple brands with marketing investments, adds Anshuman Bhattacharya, Partner, and National Leader-Consumer Products and Retail.

Another major challenge of the model is the concentration of market power within a few selected companies which can not only impact consumer demand but also product supplies and prices.

17 June 2022, Mumbai:

Chennai-headquartered Go Fashion (India) plans to increase its store presence across the country by setting up new EBOs in Tier II and III cities and strengthening offline retail presence in the northern and eastern markets.

Go Fashion has an over 8 per cent market share in the women’s bottom-wear segment. The company is engaged in development, design, sourcing, marketing and retailing of a range of women’s bottom-wear products under the brand ‘Go Colors’.

In FY22, the company added 54 exclusive brand outlets, to cross the 500 store milestone. The brand also has a strong presence in large format stores such as Reliance Retail, Central, Pantaloons and Unlimited, among others. Currently, 58-60 per cent of Go Colors’ exclusive stores are located in Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi and NCR. It plans to add 150 stores every year, says GautamSarogi, CEO.

According to Sarogi, the company’s online channel witnessed traction after the pandemic-led restrictions. It now accounts for 3 per cent of total sales and the company is plans to grow this to double digits in the next few years.

15 June 2022, Mumbai:

Luxury women’s ethnic and fusion wear brand AseemKapoor plans to launch its first retail outlet in Gurugram.

As per a Fashion Network report, the brand will launch ‘AK Studio’ as a store to house its brand’s selection of womenswear and accessories made with heritage textiles and traditional embellishments. The bare, white space will be decorated to showcase the brand’s identity.

AseemKapoor launched his eponymous brand in 2020 after working for couturier TarunTahiliani for 15 years as head of design.

Kapoor launched his first collection ‘Sleti’ (meaning ‘slate’) for autumn/winter 2020, which blended fusion wear silhouettes with rich hues and heritage embellishments.

The designer has established an eclectic, relaxed, and elegantly bohemian style with subsequent collections.

13 June 2022, Mumbai:

To become debt-free by 2025, apparel brand Raymond has undertaken several cost reduction and resource mobilization initiatives. As per a Fashion Network report, the brand’s debt declined to Rs1,088 crorein March 2022 from Rs1,416 crorein March 2021.

The company achieved this by focusing on working capital management and cost rationalization. It aims to grow revenue exponentially by the time we compete a century of operations in 2025, says AmitAgarwal, Group Chief Financial Officer, Raymond Group.

For FY22, the 98-year-old company reported a consolidated revenue from operations of Rs 6,179 crore and EBITDA of Rs881 crore. The group has created way-forward strategies for its business verticals — the flagship Raymond Lifestyle (suiting, shirtings, fabrics, apparel, garments exports and garmenting); Raymond Realty, JK Files & Engineering (which includes the steel files, tools, hardware and auto components businesses) and education.