India imports 45% of completely built units of consumer durables from China and it also imports nearly 70% of the components for television, and other consumer durable products. The price increase by suppliers at a time when demand is drastically down has hit the sector hard, said the presentation by Ficci to the government.

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.

Products such as laptops, smartphones and printers have become crucial for those working from home, while household appliances like washing machines, ACs, TVs and vacuum cleaners are now more important than ever for households.

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.

Samsung has created an ecommerce platform in partnership with Benow.in along with mobile phone retailers across the country that will allow them to sell and deliver smartphones. Offline stores are also being used to fulfil orders placed on Samsung’s e-store for television and appliances.

"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.

Several brands took the decision since both offline and online market is closed leading to piling up of inventory in their warehouses, and several of their plants falling in red zones or in states where permission has not yet been given. Some states like Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Karnataka have also decided to not provide any relaxation to industries till the lockdown ends.

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

Companies like Panasonic India, Godrej Appliances, Dixon Technologies and Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd said with retail outlets shut there is no point to start production as there is existing unsold inventory of March at warehouses and dealers.

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.

"Sales and profits of set products business, including smartphones and TVs, are expected to decline significantly as COVID-19 affects demand and leads to store and plant closures globally," Samsung said in a statement.

Both LG and Samsung have opened bookings for various products on their websites for limited periods and are offering gifts of up to Rs 10,000 on pre-bookings made during the lockdown period. LG has opened pre-bookings till May 15 and Samsung by May 8.

Lee Jae-yong is vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics and was jailed for five years in 2017 for bribery, embezzlement and other offences in connection with the scandal that brought down South Korean president Park Geun-hye.

Brands including Godrej, Panasonic, Samsung are now extending video consultations and helplines to serve a fraction of the complaints that can be solved over guided videos or calls. The brands are reaching out to customers through social media or through remote assist helplines.

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.

Major retail chains including Viveks, Shahs, Girias, Vasanth and Co are among the signatories of the letter, which fears job losses might start impacting one lakh of families, besides a steep drop in direct and indirect tax revenues to the state.

The company had recently contributed Rs 15 crore to PM CARES Fund.

According to officials, retail demand started to build up gradually. In some cases, people were completing prelockdown transactions and others new ones.

Other markets account for approximately 27.9 per cent of Dubai's imports, a statement released here by organisers of Paper Arabia 2013.

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

About a fourth of the corrugated box makers in the country are in danger of shutting down over the next few months as they are unable to pass on cost pressures to their clients.

Documentation solutions firm Xerox today announced the appointment of Ashraf ElArman as Managing Director of its Indian unit, effective June 22.

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.

With about a million products available on its website, Tolexo is among the largest B2B ecommerce sites in the country, serving 2.5 lakh businesses.

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.

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.”

'Leathery and musky' is how the brand describes it and claims that the scent will stay for as long as four years. Each bag comes with a complimentary miniature bottle of FendiFrenesia, which can be used to refresh the bag's scent and can be worn as a traditional perfume.

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.