Having suffered an unprecedented sales decline of 6-7 per cent in 2019-20, the industry will be up against challenges in both supply and demand sides due to the coronavirus pandemic, Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma said.

There are another more than 30,000 microwave ovens, AC and washing machines which needs repair at a time when Indians are locked indoors and doing household chores themselves due to the lockdown.

​​Individually, each brand is seeking more clarity and approval on the guidelines. The guidelines say that we would have to open in a phased manner. All brands are gearing up to open up, wherever, it will be permitted," CEAMA President Kamal Nandi said.

"The heavy appliances industry will be impacted by a significant loss of up to 60 per cent in March and almost 100 per cent in April. These two months put together contribute close to 25 per cent of the annual revenue," Godrej Appliances Business Head and EVP Kamal Nandi told.

The company plans to make investments of around Rs 210 crore on infrastructure development of the facility over the next four years.

Most consumer durables companies in India rely on imported components. Poor input supplies since January and later closure of factories, malls, shops and offices due to the lockdown hit consumer demand badly.

The company has cut prices anywhere from Rs 2,000 on the smaller screen televisions going up to Rs two lakh on a flagship 85-inch model apart from rolling out long tenure no-cost EMI schemes and bundling offers. It has launched a new 85-inch model at Rs 5.9 lakh bringing down its earlier pricing structure of Rs 10 lakh in this screen size.

The business of fine writing instruments is growing in tandem with other luxury segments in Koramangala and its surroundings.

At Myntra, Kamal was heading different verticals including logistics, operations excellence and the training function, where he built the in-house logistics team and scaled it to include more than 3500 people, spread across 80 plus towns and delivering over 100,000 packets a day.

India’s largest maker of writing & printing paper has been in talks with Nine Dragons for some time now. Discussions are likely to lead to a binding agreement soon, sources said.

While the financial terms of the acquisition, which was completed last month, were not shared, sources privy to the developments said the deal valued Print Bazaar at Rs 8-10 crore.

The boy topped Forbes' list of "Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018" with an impressive earning of USD 22 million.

"The company will invest another Rs 15 crore in another three months. The factory is close to Chennai port, thereby facilitating easy exports to our buyers abroad. We are happy to inaugurate our third manufacturing facility in India and production has already begun ,” said John Baby, chief executive officer (CEO), Funskool.

Reliance Retail’s marquee label operator Reliance Brands is the India master franchisee for Hamleys, which reputedly has its origins in the world’s oldest toy store in London that was opened in 1881.

With 167 stores across 18 countries, Hamleys gives Reliance Retail a much-needed global footprint.

Even with Reliance's considerable experience, turning a trophy into a titan isn’t a given.

Reliance Brands has completed acquisition of 100 per cent stake of Hamleys Global Holdings (HGHL) through a special purpose vehicle company set up in United Kingdom for cash consideration of GBP 67.96 million, Reliance Industries said in a BSE filing Thursday.

The startup plans to use the funds raised to focus on building unique phygital interactions, new product developments and expand its retail presence from 15 countries to more than 30 countries

The world’s largest publicly traded toymaker, which has licenses for popular franchises such as “Frozen” and the “Avengers,” said US goods produced in China could drop to about 50% by the end of 2020, from just under two-thirds currently.

Hamleys entered Indian in 2010 with its first store at High Street Phoenix Mumbai and is currently the largest toy retailer in India with 100 stores in 36 cities.

Rohan Mathur, senior regional sales manager - South Asia for The Lego Group spoke to ET about the toy industry, company’s India plans and its recent event in Delhi engaging the Indian government to prioritise play.

Reliance Brands will take Hamleys toy stores to the US and Canada to capitalise on the vacuum created by liquidation of one the world’s largest toy store chain Toys R Us.

Pestering by children and parental guilt has helped the toy industry grow to $1.5 billion in the past few years.

More than two years after filing for bankruptcy, Toys 'R' Us has managed to make a comeback with the support of a competitor, just in time for the holiday season. The iconic toy brand has relaunched its website, shortly after US retail chain Target announced a partnership with the defunct brand's parent company Tru Kids Brands.

Hanung Toys and Textile Ltd owes Rs 2,300 crore from a consortium of 15 lenders led by state-owned PNB, which alone has exposure of Rs 599 crore.

It has hired Sumeet Yadav, former CEO of South African restaurant chain Nando’s in India, to head Hamleys, according to two people aware of the development.

​​H​​anung Toys and Textiles Ltd (borrowing account) dealing with the bank since 2008 had availed various credit facilities under consortium arrangement wherein, Karnataka Bank was one of the member banks, it said in a regulatory filing.

The Centre, in the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has proposed raising the import duty on toys from 20 per cent to 60 per cent from the next fiscal, saying that the step would support the MSMEs and promote local manufacturing.

Imports account for almost 85 per cent of the total toys' demand in the country and only the remaining 15 per cent of the sale is met by the domestic manufacturers, according to the industry.

Myntra has launched toys from the stables of Hot wheels, Funskool, Lego, Barbie and Simba on its platform.

Sony has roped in brand licensing company Black White Orange to roll out kids’ consumer products

It costs Rs 5-6 crore per store to set up and over the next three years, the company will spend Rs 50-60 crore on The Collective portfolio, its brand head, Amit Pande, said. “We want to double our footprint and our monobrand portfolio will also see growth. However, those (mono-brand) stores cost much less at about Rs 2-3 crore per store to set up.”

Most consumers tend to go bargain hunting online. For a large part of 2019, luxury mall managers reported that sales were lacklustre. Luxury goods websites, however, managed to buck the trend because of 20-50% lower costs on their sites. But at the moment, watch companies do not seem to be finding too many takers in tier-2 and 3 towns.

The company has also held discussions with Cupertino based tech giant Apple for what could be the iPhone maker’s second flagship store in the country to be located at Aerocity near IGI Airport, sources said.

According to documents recently filed with the registrar of companies (RoC), accessed through business information platform Tofler, LVMH, known for its iconic monogrammed bags, clothing, perfumes and leather goods reported an increase in profit after tax by Rs 3.19 crore.

Wise fashionistas merely store rather than discard, waiting for the tide to inevitably turn.

Good Earth is now a prominent go-to destination for home decor enthusiasts and interior designers alike as it offers something for everyone.

The 280 billion euros ($320 billion) per year global luxury goods sector, already reeling from months of protests in the shopping hub of Hong Kong, was dealt a hammer blow earlier this year by the coronavirus outbreak in mainland China.

At its star Gucci label, which powers most of its profits, like-for-like sales were down 23.2% in the period, contrasting with a less pronounced 13.8% drop-off at Kering's Saint Laurent brand.

While many UK companies have utilised the government's furlough scheme, which sees employees paid 80% of their salary, Burberry said it would not rely on government support for jobs in the UK where more than a third of its workers are based.

The offers are on luxury products such as watches, cars and shoes, just as many other players also join the ‘lockdown bandwagon’.

The coronavirus crisis is expected to lead to a spate of mergers and acquisitions of weakened brands, the closure of single-brand stores and reshaping of already suffering U.S. department stores, D'Arpizio said. Customers are also likely to emerge from global lockdowns with a new set of priorities.

We foresee a deferred demand. Most of the weddings in Q1 got pushed to Q3 or Q4 due to the lockdown. People may spend less money on destination weddings, clothes and other events around it. But we expect investment in jewellery for weddings, said Ajoy Chawla, CEO of Titan’s jewellery division.

Customers can purchase the precious metal from two grams upwards following which a gold ownership certificate would be sent to them on the day of Akshaya Tritiya based on the customer recommended platforms.

The revenue growth of organised gold jewellery retailers could halve to 5-6% (compound annual growth rate) in the current and next fiscals, compared with 12% in the preceding three fiscals, a CRISIL study of 44 such retailers it rates shows.

The lockdown has resulted in closure of retail stores across the country. Apart from this, there have been supply chain disruptions with restriction on movement of non-essential goods. While jewellery buying is generally spread throughout the year, it peaks during periods of Akshaya Tritiya, wedding and festival seasons as buying gold is considered culturally auspicious.

GJC chairman Anantha Padmanabhan said, “There may be some token booking for gold by individuals for amounts like Rs 5,000 or so. But there will be no big investments in gold as all the shops are closed. The drop in demand will be around 94%.”

Senco Gold & Diamonds is offering a discount on the gold rate. Sankar Sen, CMD of the Kolkata-based company, said the special Akshay Tritiya offer entails giving a discount of Rs 400 per gram on the gold rate during the offer period that runs from April 22-27.

On Thursday, gold futures for June on MCX closed at Rs 46,352/10gm. So, in about one and a half years, gold prices in India could gain about 75%. In the international market, gold is currently trading at about $1,750 level.

"As we started getting a lot of enquires from our regular customers, we have started taking Akshay Tritiya bookings online from 21st April onwards on our e-commerce platforms. The same will be delivered to the customers post lockdown ends," Aditya Pethe, director, WHP Jewellers said.