29 August 2022, Mumbai

Footwear and performance apparel brand Woodland expects sales to increase to around Rs 1,200 crore this fiscal, reaching its pre-COVID numbers as customers return to stores, says Harikirat Singh, Managing Director, Aero Club.

Besides, the company has also introduced a new brand 'A Skating Monk', which is a high-end streetwear brand, targetting a niche young customer base with its range of footwear, apparel and accessories.

Presently, its range is available at selected Woodland outlets and streetwear brand stores in a pop-up format but it also plans to open 8-9 flagship stores in the future, which would act as an experiential centre, where people can understand the brand, adds Gagandeep Singh, Founder, A Skating Monk

Woodland presently has a pan-India network of 550 stores, and during the pandemic closed down 50 stores which were not doing well. However, new stores are coming up, which are actually large format stores, and gradually it would come back to the original size.

Most of the new stores would come in metro cities and existing markets. The company would also open some stores at new cities and upgrade some existing small old stores.

In the pre-pandemic FY20, Woodland’s turnover was at Rs 1,200 crore and it almost comes to show the same target this financial year (FY23).

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16 August 2022, Mumbai:

Bata India is adopting an asset-light franchise route for physical expansion. The company currently has 320 franchise outlets mainly across semi-urban areas.

Bata India Limited plans to increase this to 500 stores across towns with a population of two lakh people, says A Windlass, Chairman, Bata India.

Gunjan Shah, Managing Director & bata India CEO Sandeep Kataria, Sandeep Kataria, adds, the company has increased profits by 7 percent during the April-June quarter this fiscal. The company currently has 4,000 products, of which 50 percent belong to the casuals category and the remaining 50 percent to formals. The company has recently launched casuals, fashion shoes, and even formals.

Bata India also plans to expand exclusive e-commerce ranges to further penetrate the digital market. Currently, the brand’s digital volume constitutes 10 percent of Bata India’s sales. It has witnessed 3X growth in digital channels in the last three years.

Bata Indian brand growth of the digital segment was as high as 70 percent sequentially in April-June 2022 compared to Jan-March 2022. The segment will grow faster than the overall business, adds Shah.

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27 August 2022, Mumbai

The flagship store of traditional wear brand Ashdeen in Colaba, Mumbai houses the brand’s ParsiGara designs and launches its Festive 2022 collection. The store features the brand’s full selection of intricately handcrafted sarees, including a wide array of bridal wear.

The store is located in Colaba’s Vaswani House and gives Mumbai’s shoppers a chance to browse the label’s new festive collection. Inspired by Elizabeth Taylor and traditional Zoroastrian aesthetics, the collection features deep, jewel-toned, and pastel, floral embroidered sarees showcased in Ashdeen’s new brand film titled ‘Liz in Bombay’.

Launched in October 2012, the Ashdeenlabel specializes in hand-embroidered saris that are inspired by centuries of Oriental and Persian hand embroidery techniques, craft, and craftsmanship. The intricacies of these techniques are rendered flawlessly by a team of 150 craftspersons.

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23 August 2022, Mumbai

India’s largest and fastest growing footwear specialty chain of Reliance Retail, Trends Footwear launched a new store in Guwahati, Assam. Boasting modern looks and ambiance, the store features an exciting range of good-quality fashion merchandise at prices that are affordable.

The store is the largest multi-brand footwear outlet in the country. With a range of over 20,000 products for the entire family, over 30 Indian and international brands, and Reliance’s own brands to choose from, the new store is the 9th Trends footwear store in the Assam and 3rd & biggest store in Guwahati.

It has launched a special inaugural offer for its customers, besides great relevant fashion and amazing prices. Trends Footwear is strengthening its reach and connection with consumers in India – right from Metros, mini-metros, Tier 1, 2 towns, and beyond – with the small towns of India.

Trends Footwear launched its first store in Bengaluru, Karnataka in 2007. Today, the brand has more than 700 stores across 325+ cities in India.

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 11 August 2022, Mumbai:

India's first sustainable and size-inclusive activewear brand for women, aastey has partnered with the climatetech company Climes.

The partnership will allow the aastey customers to utilize Climes’ accessible and user-friendly solutions to make a tangible impact on the planet.

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The brand enables carbon mitigation through climate-action in a single click at checkout.

JeevikaTyagi, Co-Founder and CEO, aastey, says, this partnership brings us closer to our goal of building a more active aastey tribe. Sustainability and Reducing Carbon footprint have always been two of the brand’s most focused values.

Anirudh Gupta, Co-Founder, Climes, adds aastey’s products are significantly more climate positive and have lower carbon footprints than most of the fashion industry. This partnership will give climate-conscious consumers the choice to shop more responsibly with brands like aastey taking the lead in our climate fight."

Upon checking out, customers who visit the aastey website to purchase will see carbon emissions specific to their order.

The customer can choose how to make their purchase carbon neutral by making a small contribution to projects that revive community forests in Uttarakhand or make biodiverse forests financially viable for farmers in Maharashtra.

With just one click, the opportunity to shop more responsibly is at a customer’s fingertips, furthering the sustainability mission of aastey and Climes.

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26 August 2022, Mumbai

Amar Shoes & Leather Wears, a leading manufacturer of exclusive leather shoes launched its finest assortment of exquisite leather men's footwear in India under the brand EZOK.

EZOK products are made with the same degree of detail as produced for leading global brands, using the finest materials and carrying unique craftsmanship for manufacturing. The 150+ models offer everything that is high on style and that a quality-focused individual would expect to add to their wardrobe.

The collection is produced from the same high-quality, premium leather and enhanced with the same seaming techniques that a premium product is made with. The collection has been designed with stylish language that has been carefully planned down to the smallest detail.

EZOK Shoes will be available in India at MBOs, retail chains, and leading stores across India, along with online platforms like Nyka, Flipkart, Amazon, Ajio, and Myntra, etc. The collection encompasses Sneakers, Boots, Moccasins, Comfort, Casuals, and Dress Shoes. The collection will be priced in a range starting at Rs 2,400 to Rs 3,999.

10 August 2022, Mumbai:

Leading omnichannel eyewear brand Lenskart plans to add over 150 retail stores across south India in the next 6-8 months, as per Sunil Menon, Chief Retail Expansion Officer.

Lenskart owner, Peyush Bansal is also CEO of Lenskart Company, Which is one of the best e-commerce portals for eyewear in India.

Lenskart currently has about 550 stores across south India. It plans to increase this to 700 stores by the end of FY23. These stores will be spread across major metros as well as small towns, adds Menon.

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Of the 150 Lenksart stores Tamil Nadu, 112 are company owned and operated (COCO) while 42 are run by franchisees. The brand aims to add 200 stores in the state by the end of this fiscal, notes Menon

Besides strengthening its position in Chennai, the brand Lenskart will also look at expanding to Tier-II and -III cities such as Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tirunelveli. It will operate company owned stores in large cities and let franchisees operate in smaller towns.

Lenskart also aims to invest heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) to enable customers to have seamless shopping experience between offline and online platforms.

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17 August 2022, Mumbai:

India's largest omnichannel sports and athleisure footwear brand, Campus Activewear has reported a 287.5 percent Y-o-Y growth in EBITDA to Rs 622.4 million in Q1 FY23.

Campus activewear director Chairman & Managing Director, Nikhil Aggarwal’s enterprise profit after tax grew by 13.5x times to Rs 286.6 million.

Revenue from Campus activewear the shoemaker operations increased by 149.6 percent Y-o-Y to Rs3,377.1 million supported by strong demand from across segments coupled with a robust omnichannel presence. Both Trade Distribution and Direct-to-Customer channels have demonstrated robust Y-o-Y growth to the tune of 147 percent and 150 percent respectively.

The sales volume stood at 5.6 million pairs in Q1FY23 as against 2.3 million pairs in Q1FY22, thereby registering 141.0 percent Y-o-Y volume growth

Campus activewear the shoemaker continues to enhance its omnichannel experience focusing on premiumization and product diversification across product segments and categories.

Campus activewear Gurgaon aims to widen its presence in Western and Southern parts of India. It has a robust business model facilitating the company to tap the growing Indian sports and athleisure footwear industry.

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