🇮🇳 Aditya Birla Group’s Tmrw invests in Virat Kohli-backed brand Wrogn. The company will inject 125 crore rupees (around $15 million) into the streetwear-inspired youth-focused fashion brand founded by siblings Anjana and Vikram Reddy which is backed by venture capital firm Accel and Virat Kohli, an Indian Premier League cricketer and former captain of the national team. Tmrw is a unit of Aditya Birla Group, a Mumbai-based diversified conglomerate whose portfolio includes local joint ventures with international retailers like Reebok and Galeries Lafayette and domestic holdings like Pantaloons, Sabyasachi and The Collective. [Economic Times, BoF]
🇨🇳 China-founded Shein files for London IPO, Reuters reports. The ultra-fast fashion e-tailer valued at $66 billion in a fundraising round last year confidentially filed papers with Britain’s markets regulator in early June for a potential London Stock Exchange listing, two sources told Reuters, as the company moves ahead with what could be one of the largest IPOs globally this year. Shein’s London filing marks a shift from its long-running US IPO plan, which has run into obstacles at home and abroad. [BoF]
🇹🇷 Turkish manufacturer Migiboy Tekstil rescues French brand Naf Naf. The Istanbul-based company exporting fabrics globally has reportedly offered more than €1.5 million ($1.6 million) to take over the iconic French brand founded in 1973, saving around 90 percent of its employees and a hundred of its shops. Migiboy Tekstil, part of a conglomerate owned by the Canpolat family which spans construction, energy, agriculture and hospitality, is the fourth owner of Naf Naf, which has been in receivership since last September, in less than seven years. [Le Figaro, FashionNetwork]
🇧🇷 Brazil’s cotton exports more than treble in Jan-Apr period. Driven by a surge in the China market, the Latin American country’s exports surged 237 percent to $1.93 billion, compared to the same period in 2023. China represented the top buying country followed by Vietnam, Bangladesh, Turkey and Pakistan. [Fibre2Fashion]
🇨🇳 China’s fashion exports rise slightly in Jan-May period. The country’s textile, garment and accessory exports increased 1.36 percent to $115.842 billion, compared to the same period in 2023. The garment category saw an increase of 0.2 percent, while textiles were up 2.6 percent. [Fibre2Fashion]
🇿🇦 South African designer Loice Dube wins AFI Fastrack Prize. The Gauteng-based designer of the brand Lo’ice was granted a prize package valued at 150,000 rand ($8,200), including mentorship at the AFI Privé Atelier. The prize is an incubator programme launched in 2011 by Dr. Precious Moloi-Motsepe, the founder and executive chair of African Fashion International, the company behind Joburg Fashion Week, Cape Town Fashion Week and multi-brand boutique House of Nala. [BoF Inbox]
🇮🇳 Ananta Capital firm acquires Indian beauty group Anveya Living. The Mumbai-based private equity firm’s beauty and wellness company Guardian Group has acquired a 55 percent stake in the group that holds three brands offering hair, skin and personal care products – ThriveCo, Curlvana, and Anveya – for an undisclosed amount. Anveya Living co-founders Vivek Singh and Saurav Patnaik said that the capital would be used to expand internationally. [Economic Times]
🇮🇩 The Indonesian government will probe Chinese-owned e-tailer Temu. The imminent entry of the e-commerce giant could negatively impact Indonesia’s SMEs and disrupt supply chains, a trade ministry official suggested. “Factory-to-consumer [trade] is not compatible with our policies. Every activity from factory to consumer must have an intermediary,” Isy Karim said. The move follows last month’s probe by the country’s anti-trust agency into Singapore’s Shopee and Lazada. [The Jakarta Post]
🇮🇳 Indian beauty major Lotus Herbals creates $50 million startup fund. The natural cosmetics, skincare and body care group founded by Kamal Passi in 1993 has launched the Lotus Innovation Fund to invest in Indian startups. “We will back select two-three companies every year [and] hand-hold them for five [to] seven years,” said Nitin Passi, MD of the group that holds its namesake beauty brand and stakes in Fixderma India, Conscious Chemist, Vanity Wagon and Better Beauty among others. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 China’s cosmetic retail sales in May surge 18.7% year on year. Sales amounted to 40.6 billion yuan ($5.6 billion) during the month, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics. From January to May 2024, sales reached 176.3 billion yuan ($24.4 billion), up 5.4 percent over the same period last year. [Jing Daily]
🇮🇳 Indian B2B fashion platform Zyod secures $18 million investment. The Gurugram-based firm founded by Ankit Jaipuria and Ritesh Khandelwal, has raised the capital in a mix of equity and debt funding in a round led by RTP Global, with participation from Stride Ventures, Trifecta Capital, Alteria Capital and existing investor Lightspeed Venture. The end-to-end design, manufacturing, and delivery services firm will use the funding to expand further overseas. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Swiss watch exports drop in May as China slowdown persists. Exports to mainland China, the second-biggest market behind the US, skidded 18 percent by wholesale value as a downturn in real estate values battered consumer sentiment. Shipments to Hong Kong, a key watch-trading hub, plummeted 23 percent. [BoF]
🇮🇳 India’s The Pant Project raises $4.25 million in debut funding round. The trousers brand founded in 2020 by Dhruv and Udit Toshniwal, members of the founding family of the Rajasthan-based Banswara Syntex textile firm, has secured capital from Sorin Investments, with participation from MGA Ventures, Huddle, Dexter Ventures and Indian Silicon Valley among others. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Chinese multi-brand beauty retailer Sa Sa International sees profits surge. The Hong Kong-based company has reported an annual net profit increase of about 2.76 times to HK$219 million ($28 million) for the year ended March 31, 2024, and a revenue increase of 24.8 percent year-over-year to HK$4.37 billion ($558 million). [Jing Daily]
🇮🇳 Indian luggage maker Eume raises $1.8 million in funding round. The Mumbai-based premium digital-first brand founded by Naina Parekh in 2018 has secured 15 crore rupees in capital from investor Ashish Kacholia to streamline operations, expand the team and create a physical retail presence. [Economic Times]
🇨🇳 Beiersdorf warns of difficult quarter ahead in China. The German skin care company said the luxury skincare market in China has continued to “decline strongly” during the second quarter, but the group has managed to gain more market share with its La Prairie brand. [BoF]
🇰🇷 Korean fashion retailer Handsome opens System’s first international flagship. The company, a subsidiary of Hyundai Group, one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates, has opened a store in Paris for its brand System. The move follows Handsome’s shuttering of its multi-brand store Tom Greyhound in the city earlier this year. [InsideRetail Asia, BoF]
🇧🇷 CeraVe names Brazilian singer Ana Castela as its brand ambassador. L’Oréal Group’s mass-market skincare brand has partnered with the musician, known for her songs fusing the local sertanejo genre with pop, who has over 14 million followers on Instagram and is also called “Boiadeira”. [FashionNetwork]
🇬🇹 Guatemala’s Apparel Sourcing Show attracts record visitor numbers. More than 5,000 visitors, including many US fashion brands interested in increasing their production in the CAFTA-DR region (beneficiary countries of the free trade agreement between the US and the Dominican Republic-Central America region), attended last month’s show in the capital. [FashionNetwork]
🇨🇳 Moncler Genius to reveal its collaborations at Shanghai Fashion Week. The Italian luxury brand’s partnership-focused collection is planning to show its next series on the last day of China’s main fashion week, October 19. The move follows a previous showcase in London. [Hypebeast]
🇰🇷 Louis Vuitton names South Korean actor Gong Yoo as its brand ambassador. The French luxury brand has partnered with Gong Ji-cheol, star of films like “A Man and a Woman” and TV series such as “Squid Game,” who is better known by his stage name Gong Yoo, to endorse its products. [Femina India, BoF]
🇨🇳 Loewe taps Chinese entertainer Wang Yibo as its brand ambassador. The Spanish luxury brand has partnered with the actor and member of the K-pop band Uniq who has more than 40 million followers on social network Weibo. Wang also serves as a brand ambassador for Chanel, Lacoste and Anta. [BoF Inbox]
