Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail buys controlling stake in Sabyasachi

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has taken a controlling stake in designer brand Sabyasachi for Rs 398 cr, adding to its existing portfolio of brands that include Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England. It will buy a 51% stake in the company founded by Sabyasachi Mukherjee in 1999. “Sabyasachi is India’s largest […]

V-Mart recovers 81% of Q3 sales YoY

After two torturous quarters, value-focused fashion and general merchandise retailer V-Mart reported an 81% like-to-like sales recovery for the Oct-Dec quarter. The number indicates that modern retail, with its air-conditioned showrooms, is still struggling to attract visitors unlike several other retail segments. Some of the other segments, such as automobiles, consumer durables and even some […]

V-Mart starts inventory purchases after six months

V-Mart, India’s largest chain of smaller-sized fashion stores, said it has started purchasing fresh stock from its suppliers after nearly six months of freeze on garment procurement. The company was hit hard when a nationwide lockdown was imposed by the central government in late March to control the spread of COVID-19, particularly as it had […]

Titan Co’s jewelry business almost back level in Q2

Titan Company, India’s largest jewelry retailer and a part of the Tata Group, said second quarter revenue from its mainstay jewelry division was almost at the same level as what was seen in the same quarter last year, while its eyewear and watches division continued to suffer from the impact of the pandemic. The jewelry […]

Future Retail says no agreement with Amazon

Future Retail, the pioneering modern retail chain founded by Kishore Biyani, today said it will take steps to implement its agreement with Reliance Retail as it is not a party to the agreement quoted by global retailer Amazon to block its merger with Reliance Retail. The agreement is with one of its promoters and group […]

Online grocery hit critical mass in lockdown: HUL

Some of the gains made by the e-commerce sector during the COVID-19 lockdown is permanent and retailing will never be the same again even after the pandemic, said Sanjiv Mehta, chairman and managing director of Hindustan Unilever Ltd. As India’s largest supplier of consumer goods, HUL has a lot at stake in health and longevity […]

Domino’s Pizza sees jump in deliveries, takeaways

Jubilant FoodWorks, the company behind Domino’s Pizza and the franchisee for Dunkin’ Donuts in India, reported a growth of 10% in its delivery sales and 55% in its take-away sales for August compared to the same month of last year. However, dine-in sales were still down 84% compared to August 2019, resulting in a net […]

Shoppers Stop to link physical stores with Amazon shopfront

Department store chain Shoppers Stop, the pioneer of organized retail in India and one of the country’s largest retailers of fashion and beauty products, will connect its individual stores to its Amazon shopfront by next month as part of its omni-channel strategy. It also said it would focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns […]

D-Mart working on new cities, but COVID-19 impact to show

D-Mart, India’s most famous deep discount retail chain, said it is working on expanding its footprint beyond its current footprint of 214 locations, but the ongoing COVID-19 will impact the number of new stores that will be opened this year. The company, which started with just two stores in Mumbai in 2002-03, expanded to 214 […]

D-Mart warms up to e-commerce as JioMart expands

D-Mart, arguably India’s most successful low-cost retailer, may be looking at a multi-city e-commerce launch in coming days, after years of avoiding the sector citing the gruesome economics of online retail in India. Avenue Supermarkets, or D-Mart as most people would know it, is known for its fanatic focus on keeping costs down and its […]

HUL Q1 ad spend down a third, merger protects top line

Hindustan Unilever, the biggest advertiser in India, protected its profit margins during the Apr-Jun period by slashing its advertising budget by about 32%. Given that this is after merging GSK’s consumer healthcare business with itself, the actual decline in advertising is likely to have been in the 35% range. Even after adding GSK CH numbers, […]

Dabur explores online sales, sees material COVID-19 impact

Dabur, one of India’s largest manufacturers of daily essentials such as toothpastes, nutraceuticals and so on, said it saw a material impact on its its finances from the ongoing COVID-19 impact, and said it was exploring online options to boost sales. “On account of Covid-19 and consequent lockdown since March, the impact on our production […]

Kerala Govt body starts online delivery of grocery

Kerala State Co-operative Consumers’ Federation Ltd, popularly known as ConsumerFed, has started online ordering of grocery kits, starting with the Ernakulam district. The government-controlled body, however, is yet to scale up deliveries, and is accepting only 100 orders per day. Moreover, orders are currently being delivered only out of the Kakkanad depot, in an around […]