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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01 August 2022, Mumbai:

Footwear retailer Relaxo Footwears is seeing a growth in demand for products priced at Rs 500 and above, says Rakesh Kumar Dua, MD, Relaxo Footwears. Currently, inflation is high although raw material prices have softened, adds Dua.

The worst sufferers are the masses although demand for articles used by the middle class continues to grow despite inflation, he adds.

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The company’s margins are under pressure as raw material prices are high. However, softening of prices in coming quarters will boost margins, he opines. Dua adds decline in inflation is likely to boost demand for its products as people will be able to buy more footwear.

People abstain from buying more footwear during inflation due to the limited flow of money.

Once inflation goes down, again and money is available in the market, products will become more affordable and demand will increase.

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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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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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05 August 2022, Mumbai:

Reliance Brands (RBL) has signed a franchise agreement with global luxury brand Balenciaga to bring the brand to the Indian market.

With this long-term franchise agreement, RBL will be Balenciaga’s sole India partner to launch the brand in the country and this partnership will be RBL’s second with the parent group Kering, which houses Balenciaga.

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Founded by Spanish-born Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1917 and established in Paris in 1937, the original house of Balenciaga defined modern couture with its many innovations to form and technique.

Since his appointment as artistic director in 2015, Demna continues to uphold the vision of Balenciaga through boundary-pushing collections, which have expanded to include women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, accessories, and objets d’art.

It’s the most opportune time to introduce the brand to the country as the Indian luxury customer has matured and used fashion as a form of creative expression of their individuality, says Darshan Mehta, Managing Director, Reliance Brands.

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28 July 2022, Mumbai:

The new sustainable initiative by Luxury womenswear brand Ekaya named ‘Second Chance’ encourages customers to revive their heirloom pieces to either sell on or alter to ensure they remain in circulation.

By filling out the new Second Chance form on Ekaya’s website, interested parties can detail what they have, its condition, and what they want to do with it then Ekaya’s client advisors will get in touch with further information.

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The brand will work with damaged heirloom sarees, lehengas, and textile pieces and aims to help their clients resell, revive, restore, repurpose, and rewear their pre-owned Ekaya heirlooms.

Ekaya’s customers can also get in touch with the brand’s client advisors to book an email or phone consultation, the brand announced on Facebook.

Ekaya, which specialises in sarees and traditional wear, is also expanding its product offering and recently launched a homeware line featuring cushions and other goods in its signature printed textiles.

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