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Nivea maker warns of margin threat as niche brands disrupt industry

"The consumer goods industry... is in turmoil," new Beiersdorf CEO Stefan De Loecker, who took over on Jan. 1, told a presentation to analysts. "I need to act now."




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How Nykaa has changed the way beauty products are added to the cart in India

It was a trend investment banker Falguni Nayar was betting on when set up Nykaa to sell everything in the cosmetic and wellness category. Today she has around 750 professionals across different divisions.




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VLCC ropes in Jayant Khosla, formerly with Landmark, as chief business officer ahead of IPO

Khosla’s mandate will be overseeing the firm’s wellness centres, personal care products and its institute of beauty and nutrition, across Middle East, Africa and CIS countries.




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Believe in the business to stay ahead of the curve: Falguni Nayar, Nykaa

"The journey actually began in June when we did well due to marketing, though we were actually not ready operationally."




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Fogg-maker launches Pretty 24 that debunks fairness proposition

There is no market for me today because every brand in the category has convinced the consumer that they need to look fair to be successful in life.




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Cosmetics brand Flormar ties up with Rel Retail to begin India journey

Reliance Trends is the fashion and accessories arm of Reliance Retail.




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India's domestic male grooming market to reach new high by next year

Even though that is the small fraction of the $33 -billion revenue the market generate globally, it also means there is tremendous scope for growth for India.




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Beauty & wellness business has market potential of Rs 80,000 crore in India: Skills development minister

“India would need more than 70 lakh skilled manpower in coming months in this sector due to unleashing of economy,” Mahendra Nath Pandey said.




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Molton Brown plans to enter India's hospitality sector next fiscal

The company, which plans to open 15 stores across India over the next five years, at present has one store in India. It entered India in June this year.




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LA fashion and beauty retailers take steps to contain coronavirus spread

A shopping mall in LA called 'The Grove and Beverly Center' has added more hand sanitizing stations, while Glossier, a cosmetic store, is closing all stores: "We are ready to put public health before our results.".




b

Steadview funding values Nykaa at $1.2bn

The funding includes the sale of shares by some existing investors and employees of Nykaa, which has been done at a discount to the $1.2-billion valuation. The latest round comes about a year after the company raised $15 million from TPG Growth, which had valued it at $724 million.




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Coronavirus: Nivea India starts manufacturing hand sanitisers; to be distributed 'free of cost'

The company said its plant at Sanand in Gujarat which originally manufactures skincare products for the India market has begun production of alcohol-based hand sanitisers, and it will be shifting part of its production towards the making of sanitisers at the plant.




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Covid-19 outbreak: Delhi government to check hoarding of sanitisers, fine violators

Since hand sanitisers have been declared as essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act, action can be taken against dealers involved in hoarding and black-marketing of the product. The retailer/ manufacturer/ trader overcharging a consumer can be prosecuted under the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and Packaged Commodities Rules, 2011, the government said in a statement.




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Masks, sanitisers can be sold at fair price shops: Delhi food minister

Officials are already taking necessary action against black-marketers and hoarders as per law under the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act. The minister said the practice of social distancing must be followed while distributing ration among beneficiaries, who should be asked to maintain a distance of at least one metre between them.




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Covid-19 outbreak: Liquor firms to seek licence for sanitisers

The industry will also meet drug controllers to seek and fast-track issuance of required licences and nods. Ethyl alcohol, a key raw material used in a distillery, is also a key ingredient for hand sanitisers. This move comes as the centre has requested state governments to rope in distilleries to make hand sanitisers for the shutdown period till March 31 due to the pandemic.




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Government bans export of sanitisers, all types of ventilators

“The export of all ventilators including any artificial respiratory apparatus or oxygen therapy apparatus or any other breathing appliance/devices... is prohibited with immediate effect,” the the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in a notification.




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Covid lockdown: Buying from home leads to surge in e-pharmacy sales

While most brick-and-mortar pharmacies continue to function amid the countrywide lockdown to contain the pandemic, many consumers have switched to buying medicines online for fear of getting infected by the novel coronavirus, industry insiders said.




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Covid-19 Impact: Cycle Pure Agarbathies holds back prayer product launches to shift focus on hand sanitisers

The Mysuru-headquartered brand is using its fragrance stock to make ayurvedic hand sanitisers ever since its product portfolio comprising incense sticks, prayer and wellness products came under the non-essential category.




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Orders at e-pharmacies see bumper surge

Apart from Covid-19 lockdown norms, paucity of adequate stocks and a minuscule discount in retail medicine shops shot the demand for medicine delivery through various e-pharmacy platforms.




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Reliance plans to buy e-pharmacy Netmeds

The conversations between Reliance and Netmeds, which had also held talks with Walmart-owned Flipkart, had been going on before the coronavirus lockdown, sources said.




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How Under Armour can kick back at Adidas’ shoe game

Adidas’s resurgence couldn’t have come at a worse time for Under Armour, which was just gaining a foothold in the sneaker business in US.




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CureFit hires senior executives from Flipkart, Walmart, InMobi

The startup, backed by Ratan Tata's investment platform RNT Capital, confirmed his appointment.




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‘Talwalkars to be Snap Fitness franchisees in 6 Asian countries outside India’

The affordable gyms under Talwalkar-Snap Fitness tieup to open first in Singapore and Malaysia.




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VLCC to open 6 outlets in Saudi Arabia; ties up with Cigalah

VLCC currently operates 20 centres across UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.




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Fit and fine: Retail market for fitness in India likely to touch Rs 7,000cr by year-end

The value of the market in India is Rs 4,579 crore at present.




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VLCC to organise campaign against obesity

To mark the occasion of Anti Obesity Day on November 26, the company would provide DNA scan to individuals at its centres countrywide and also educate them on issues leading to the problem such as weight gain, exercise and food habits etc.




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CureFit gets $10 m in debt financing

The startup plans to raise more going forward to fund its capital expenditure (capex).




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Mukesh Bansal’s Cure.fit acquires Fitness First chain




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Mukesh Bansal's CureFit eyes 500 CultFit fitness centres by 2020

Bansal said the startup has so far raised around $160 million and only less than 20% of the funds were utilised so far and the balance funds will be spent over the next few years towards developing fitness devices and technology platform, apart from expanding the footprint.




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Fitness fad boosts desi athleisure business

Some see it as fashion that is effortless and comfortable. While gym or performance wear is made mainly of polyester to ensure it dries quickly, athleisure wear is a combination of polyester and cotton.




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We want to be present in 120 Indian cities by 2022: Navneet Banka, Trek

According to Banka, since its launch in the country, Trek has acquired more than 30,000 customers and till now had sold seven bicycles in the range of Rs 6.5 lakh to Rs 12 lakh.




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Investors bid $2.2bn for sportsgear marketer Reebok

Eight years after acquiring US rival, Reebok, seems like German sports gear marketer - Adidas has put Reebok on the block.




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Mahesh Bhupathi backed Sports365.in to raise up to Rs 53 crore

Sports365 plans to use the funds to build technological capacities, launch its own private label and increase manpower.




b

Nike's incredible road to becoming the world's dominant sneaker retailer

Nike is the dominant athletic apparel brand in the world, with $30 billion in annual revenue.But it wasn't always that way.Here's a look at Nike's history.




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Ceat signs Rohit Sharma for bat endorsement deal

The cricketer will now be seen playing with a bat prominently displaying Ceat in all formats of the game, Ceat said in a statement.




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India is a very important strategic market for Callaway: Oliver Chip Brewer

We have more than 25% market share in the Indian golf market, which is pegged at around $11 million.




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Mahesh Bhupathi's Sports365 aims to be Rs 1,000-cr firm in 5 years

Sports365 is also supported by icons as Yuvraj Singh, Deepika Pallikal and Bhupathi's wife Lara Dutta and is partnering with foreign sports brands as their exclusive partners in India.




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Yuvraj Singh promoted YouWeCan invests in brand licensing company Black White Orange

Cricketer Yuvraj Singh promoted investment fund YouWeCan Ventures has invested in Mumbai-based brand licensing start-up Black White Orange Brands for an undisclosed amount.




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Nike just stops batting for Indian cricketers

It has been learnt that the Oregon-based sportswear firm has not renewed contracts with Indian cricketers such as Ajinkya Rahane, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja.




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Meerut's sports goods mkt sees 80% fall in sales after note ban

A month after demonetisation, the industry is yet to recover from the shock. Sales have dipped drastically, and small businesses have had to shut down.




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Consignments of sports goods from Pakistan unclaimed at the border post after high import duty

With 200% duty, Indian importers aren’t taking delivery of sports goods and other consignments.




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Letters: Lift the lockdown - the coming recession will be worse

PERHAPS we should wait until we have achieved the same level of containment of the virus as Germany before we think about restarting football (How German football intends to restart next week – and what the Scottish game can learn from their masterplan, Monday).




b

Letters: People abusing lockdown will only make it go on longer

I TOTALLY agree as a frontline worker who is working 12-hour shifts that restrictions should have been tougher to start with.




b

Heart failure patient hits out at AXM defibrillator vandal

Jim Tees should check his facts before jumping in with both feet and looking foolish.




b

Reopening After COVID: The 3 Phases Recommended By The White House

President Trump wants states to begin relaxing stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses after the spread of the coronavirus pummeled the global economy and killed millions of jobs. The White House coronavirus task force released guidelines on April 16 to encourage state governors to adopt a phased approach to lifting restrictions across the country. Some states have moved ahead without meeting the criteria . The task force rejected a set of additional detailed draft recommendations for schools, restaurants, churches and mass transit systems from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it considered " overly prescriptive ." A number of states have already begun to lift restrictions, allowing for businesses including hair salons, diners and tattoo parlors to once again begin accepting customers. Health experts have warned that reopening too quickly could result in a potential rebound in cases. States are supposed to wait to begin lifting any restrictions until they have a 14




b

Public Health Experts Say Many States Are Opening Too Soon To Do So Safely

As of Friday in Texas, you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday, at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work despite public health experts warning that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. Because of that success, many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. But cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later




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COMIC: Hospitals Turn To Alicia Keys, U2 And The Beatles To Sing Patients Home

Dr. Grace Farris is chief of hospital medicine at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan. She also writes a monthly comics column in the Annals of Internal Medicine called "Dr Mom." You can find her on Instagram @coupdegracefarris . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.




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Opinion: Endangered Bird Couple Returns To Chicago's Shore

Monty and Rose met last year on a beach on the north side of Chicago. Their attraction was intense, immediate, and you might say, fruitful. Somewhere between the roll of lake waves and the shimmer of skyscrapers overlooking the beach, Monty and Rose fledged two chicks. They protected their offspring through formative times. But then, in fulfillment of nature's plan, they parted ways, and left the chicks to make their own ways in the world. Monty and Rose are piping plovers, an endangered species of bird of which there may only be 6,000 or 7,000 in the world, including Monty, Rose and their chicks. They were the first piping plovers to nest in Chicago in more than 60 years. After their chicks fledged, they drifted apart. Rose went off to Florida for the winter, and Monty made his way to the Texas coast. They'd always have the North Side, but were each on their own in a huge, fraught world. And then, just a few days ago, Monty and Rose were sighted again, on the same patch of sand on




b

Women Bear The Brunt Of Coronavirus Job Losses

Very briefly, at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, there were slightly more women on American nonfarm payrolls than men. That's no longer true. The historically disastrous April jobs report shows that the brunt of job losses fell on women. Women now account for around just under half — 49% — of American workers, and they accounted for 55% of the increase in job losses last month. One way of looking at why that matters that is to look at the gap that opened up between women's and men's unemployment last month. The below chart shows women's unemployment rate minus men's unemployment rate since 2007. Usually, the line bumps around near or just below zero — meaning men's unemployment is usually near or slightly higher than women's. But that spike on the far right shows how women's unemployment leapt to be 2.7 points higher than men's in April. Women had an unemployment rate of 16.2% to men's 13.5% last month. That's uncommon for a recession. The below chart is a longer view, and the




b

How The Approval Of The Birth Control Pill 60 Years Ago Helped Change Lives

Updated at 9:44 a.m. ET As a young woman growing up in a poor farming community in Virginia in the 1940 and '50s, with little information about sex or contraception, sexuality was a frightening thing for Carole Cato and her female friends. "We lived in constant fear, I mean all of us," she said. "It was like a tightrope. always wondering, is this going to be the time [I get pregnant]?" Cato, 78, now lives in Columbia, S.C. She grew up in the years before the birth control pill was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on May 9, 1960. She said teenage girls in her community were told very little about how their bodies worked. "I was very fortunate; I did not get pregnant, but a lot of my friends did. And of course, they just got married and went into their little farmhouses," she said. "But I just felt I just had to get out." At 23, Cato married a widower who already had seven children. They decided seven was enough. By that time, Cato said, the pill allowed the couple to