29 January 2026, Mumbai

As India's activewear market accelerates toward a projected $14.63 billion valuation by the end of 2026, Reliance Retail has formalized an exclusive partnership with US-based athleisure pioneer Fabletics. This strategic alliance leverages Reliance’s extensive omni-channel infrastructure - spanning over 18,000 stores - to introduce Fabletics’ membership-driven model to a rapidly diversifying Indian consumer base. The entry is timed as the domestic sports apparel segment maintains a robust 12.2 per cent CAGR, nearly doubling the global average.

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Navigating the competitive ‘liquid data’ landscape

The collaboration enters a market where digital-first agility is the primary differentiator. While global peers like lululemon and Alo Yoga have finalized their own 2026 entry strategies, Fabletics aims to capture the ‘mass-premium’ vacuum by utilizing Reliance’s Ajio platform to mitigate high customer acquisition costs. According to market data, women’s activewear remains the fastest-growing sub-segment in India. The category has evolved into a versatile wardrobe essential, noted an industry analyst, highlighting that 60 per cent of revenue now stems from ath-leisure used for social and work settings rather than exclusive gym utility.

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Infrastructure synergy and sector impact

Fabletics will deploy its global performance-wear expertise through Reliance’s tech-enabled supply chain to solve the critical ‘last-mile’ challenge in Tier-II and Tier-II cities.

This move places significant pressure on local D2C incumbents like Blissclub and HRX, who are currently grappling with rising operational costs. By integrating with a domestic giant, Fabletics avoids the typical 30-40 per cent margin erosion associated with independent logistics in India.

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This partnership serves as a definitive case study for global brands: in 2026, success in the Indian retail theater is dictated by the depth of local distribution partnerships rather than brand legacy alone.

Co-founded by Kate Hudson, Fabletics is an global leader in tech-led activewear. Its 2026 India roadmap focuses on the ‘urban athlete’ across major metros like Mumbai and Bangalore, targeting a 20 per cent share of the premium women’s activewear market. Historically a digital-first pioneer, the brand aims to reach Rs 250 crore in local valuation within its first fiscal year of Reliance-backed operations.

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28 January 2026, Mumbai

In a strategic move to capture a larger share of India’s $5.51 billion baby care market, Popees Baby Care has inaugurated its 104th store at Grand Square Mall, Chennai. This launch signifies the brand’s first Exclusive Brand Outlet (EBO) in the Tamil Nadu capital, marking a critical transition from regional distribution to direct-to-consumer flagship retail in high-growth metropolitan hubs. The inauguration, attended by mall leadership and prominent parenting influencers, underscores a broader industry shift where organized retail is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 11 per cent through 2031, driven by a rising demand for specialized infant safety standards.

Fabric innovation and safety protocols

The Chennai flagship serves as a showcase for the brand’s premiumization strategy, specifically its ‘Bamboo Essentials’ line. By utilizing eco-friendly, hypoallergenic bamboo fabrics, the company is addressing the heightened consumer sensitivity toward skin-safe materials - a segment expected to outpace conventional apparel. To maintain a competitive edge against both domestic and international entrants, the brand has institutionalized a rigorous 28-point quality checkpoint system. This focus on ‘clinical-grade’ safety serves as a defensive moat in a fragmented market where urban parents increasingly associate brand certification with authenticity and infant health.

Ambitious roadmap for domestic and global dominance

With an operational revenue of approximately Rs 123 crore for the previous fiscal year, the company is executing an aggressive expansion blueprint that targets 1,000 stores within the next four years. Beyond its domestic stronghold, the group is pursuing an international omnichannel strategy, with recent entries into the UAE market via Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. While the sector faces headwinds from rising raw material costs and intense competition from digitally-native brands, the group’s integrated manufacturing model - producing 500,000 garments monthly—provides the logistical agility required to scale rapidly across Tier-I and Tier-II geographies.

Founded in 2003, Popees Baby Care is a specialized manufacturer and retailer of infant apparel and maternity products. Operating three manufacturing facilities, the brand dominates the South Indian market with a focus on newborns to six-year-olds. With a current valuation supported by a 14 per cent Y-o-Y revenue growth, the group is aggressively pivoting toward a 1,000-store national network and GCC expansion to solidify its status as a global leader in the sustainable baby care segment.

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29 January 2026, Mumbai

In a decisive move to consolidate its ‘House of Brands,’ a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail (ABFRL), Aditya Birla Digital Fashion Ventures (ABDFVL) invested an additional Rs 42.38 crore into the youth-focused fashion brand Wrogn. Finalized on January 28, 2026, this transaction comprises a Rs 6.57 crore secondary acquisition of a 2.53 per cent stake and a Rs 35.81 crore primary infusion through Optionally Convertible Redeemable Preference Shares (OCRPS). This capital deployment comes at a critical juncture for the Virat Kohli-backed label as it navigates a challenging fiscal landscape.

Capitalizing on the ‘liquid data’ opportunity

While Wrogn reported a revenue contraction to Rs 223.23 crore in FY25, down from Rs 00344.31 crore in FY23, ABFRL’s investment indicates a long-term belief in the brand’s digital-first potential. The industry is currently shifting toward ‘Agentic Commerce,’ where AI-driven inventory management aims to reduce the ‘Return to Origin’ (RTO) rates that currently erode digital margins by 25-30 per cent. By integrating Wrogn into ABFRL’s vast supply chain, the group plans to utilize its 7.5 million sq ft retail footprint as decentralized micro-warehouses, targeting a 45 per cent store-to-online fulfillment rate by the end of 2026.

Navigating the D2C efficiency stress test

The ‘House of Brands’ strategy is facing an efficiency-first mandate as consumer behavior in India's mass-premium segment matures. Competitors like Snitch and Rare Rabbit have pressured traditional celebrity-led brands by offering faster design cycles. To counter this, ABFRL is leveraging its tech-led venture TMRW, which grew 27 per cent in Q2 FY26. As noted by Manish Ranade, Managing Director, Lectra India, digital transformation is no longer a luxury but a ‘strategic imperative to ensure transparency and seamlessly integrate with global value chains.’

ABDFVL is the digital-first growth engine for ABFRL, focusing on scaling D2C brands in India's youth fashion market. Through its tech-led platform TMRW, it manages a portfolio of eight brands, targeting a 35 per cent online revenue share by 2027. ABFRL remains India’s top sustainable retailer with over 3,000 stores nationwide.

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28 January 2026, Mumbai

Much of the public conversation around the India-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has focused on exports: factories running longer shifts, order books swelling, and Indian garments finding wider shelf space across Europe. Yet beneath this export-led narrative, a quieter structural transformation is unfolding one that could prove just as consequential for India’s fashion future.

For the first time in decades, the agreement dismantles India’s long-standing tariff barriers on premium European fashion fabrics. While the spotlight remains fixed on Made in India labels reaching Paris and Milan, the more strategic shift lies in the reverse flow: Sourced from Italy and Woven in France materials entering India at zero duty. This change directly feeds India’s ambition to evolve from a volume-driven apparel supplier into a fully integrated global fashion hub.

The tariff wall that shaped an industry

Before the FTA, India’s fabric import ecosystem was defined by a sharp paradox. The country is one of the world’s largest producers of cotton and blended textiles, yet it has always relied on Europe for high-count woollens, couture-grade lace, advanced silk blends, and specialized finishing techniques. These imports, however, came at a cost.

Duties ranging from 10 to over 20 per cent made European fabrics more expensive than domestic alternatives or materials sourced from Southeast Asia. As a result, Italian, French, and Belgian textiles were largely confined to a narrow universe of couture designers, luxury tailors, and appointment-only importers in Tier-I metros. The tariff reset introduced by the FTA fundamentally alters this equation.

Table: Fabric import duties before and after the FTA

Luxury materials move from vaults to showrooms

One of the most immediate ripple effects of duty-free European fabrics is unfolding within India’s organized fabric retail sector. What was once a closed, elite market is steadily opening up to a broader but still premium consumer base. Until now, Italian linens or French silks were typically sourced through bespoke channels catering to a tiny slice of India’s ultra-affluent. With the FTA in place, organized fabric retailers are preparing to stock these materials at price points aligned with India’s rapidly expanding affluent class, projected to grow from around 60 million consumers in 2023 to nearly 100 million by 2027.

Industry estimates suggest that premium retail prices for imported shirting and suiting fabrics could fall by 12-15 per cent. This narrowing gap between premium domestic and entry-level European fabrics is expected to change purchasing behaviour, particularly among aspirational urban professionals and wedding shoppers. The effect, in industry terms, is a gradual democratization of luxury where access expands without diluting exclusivity.

A dual advantage for Indian garment makers

For India’s garment manufacturing ecosystem, the FTA delivers a two-pronged benefit that strengthens both domestic positioning and export competitiveness. On the home front, premium Indian brands now have the freedom to experiment at a level previously constrained by cost. Labels such as FabIndia’s premium lines or Anokhi can blend zero-duty French lace with Indian Chanderi, or pair Italian wool with indigenous tailoring traditions. The result is a new category of Indo-Western luxury that would have been commercially unviable under the old tariff regime.

In export markets, the implications are even more strategic. Manufacturers in clusters like Tiruppur, Noida, and Ludhiana are no longer locked into mid-grade input materials. Access to European fabrics at zero duty allows Indian exporters to compete directly in higher-value segments traditionally dominated by Vietnam or Turkey.

A recent example from Noida-based Vogue Exports illustrates this shift. By replacing Chinese synthetic blends with Italian luxury cottons for a European client’s premium spring collection, the company saved roughly 12 per cent in fabric duties. That saving translated into a four-percentage-point improvement in margins enough to undercut Vietnamese competitors while still enhancing perceived quality.

Domestic fabric giants face a quality reckoning

The influx of duty-free European textiles inevitably raises questions about India’s own fabric champions. Companies such as Raymond and Grasim are not being displaced but they are being challenged. Rather than triggering a price war, the FTA is accelerating an upgradation cycle across the domestic fabric industry.

Table: Impact on Indian domestic fabric brands

Preferred partners and the quiet exclusion of others

The India-EU FTA also redraws the competitive map by creating a clear hierarchy among sourcing nations. European suppliers now enjoy a preferred status that non-FTA countries struggle to match. Fabrics from China and Japan continue to attract peak customs duties of 10-20 per cent, instantly making high-end Japanese silks or specialty blends more expensive than Italian equivalents of comparable quality. Turkey, despite its customs union with the EU, faces a more complex route into India compared to the streamlined FTA pathway. Trade analysts estimate that this realignment could divert up to $2.7 billion in fabric sourcing away from non-FTA countries over the next few years.

Europe’s fabric giants eye a deeper India play

Perhaps the most telling indicator of the FTA’s long-term impact lies in the recalibration of Europe’s heritage fabric houses. These companies are not consumer brands in the traditional sense, but ingredient brands names that signal quality to designers, tailors, and discerning buyers.

Table:

The silent squeeze on non-EU luxury suppliers

As European brands gain price and access advantages, non-EU luxury fabric makers are facing a quiet but significant squeeze. Japanese silk specialists and British suiting houses like Kyoto Silks or Scaba now find themselves 15-20 per cent more expensive purely due to tariff differentials. The likely outcomes are stark: absorb the cost and accept margin erosion, or gradually cede market share. In this sense, the FTA is not merely enabling trade it is actively reshaping competitive survival.

A new hybrid takes shape

What emerges from this realignment is a distinctly new fashion archetype. An Indian sherwani cut from Italian wool; a bandhgala finished with French lace; a bespoke suit that blends European fiber science with Indian craftsmanship and is sold to a global customer. This Euro-Indian hybrid represents the next stage of India’s fashion evolution.

From trade deal to quality transfer

Ultimately, the import story of the India-EU FTA is not about undermining Indian weavers or mills. It is about upgrading the ecosystem. By opening the door to the world’s finest fabrics, India is effectively importing know-how, benchmarks, and aspiration. As EU fabric exports to India are projected to double by 2032, growth will be driven not by commodities but by heritage-rich, high-value materials. In that sense, the FTA is less a commercial agreement and more a catalyst quietly supplying the threads from which the next generation of Indian fashion leaders will be woven.

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30 January 2026, Mumbai

Amidst a shifting retail landscape in early 2026, Arvind Fashions (AFL) has demonstrated the high-growth potential of direct-to-consumer (D2C) ecosystems. The company reported a revenue of Rs 1,377 crore in Q3 FY26, representing a 14.5 per cent Y-o-Y expansion. This performance was anchored by a 50 per cent growth in online B2C sales, illustrating a successful transition toward digital-first engagement as the Indian apparel market moves toward a projected $80 billion valuation this year.

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Scaling profitability via channel mix optimization

The company’s gross margins expanded by 50 basis points to 55.4 per cent, a result of a richer channel mix and disciplined cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) management. EBITDA rose 18 per cent Y-o-Y to Rs 195 crore, with margins improving to 14.2 per cent. This operational leverage was particularly evident in the retail segment, where like-to-like (LTL) growth reached 8.2 per cent. As noted by Manish Ranade, Managing Director, Lectra India, digital transformation has become a ‘strategic imperative’ for maintaining competitiveness in a volatile global supply chain environment.

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Strategic infrastructure and efficiency mandates

AFL strategically added 43 EBOs during the quarter, bringing its net retail footprint to approximately 13.07 lakh sq ft. This physical expansion, paired with ‘Agentic Commerce’ protocols, has allowed the firm to maintain healthy net working capital days through optimized inventory turns. While reported profit after tax (PAT) stood at Rs 26 crore due to exceptional labor code adjustments, PAT from continuing operations climbed a remarkable 65.2 per cent YoY to Rs 44 crore. This trajectory suggests that integrated production and distribution platforms are successfully insulating top-tier retailers against rising input costs and shifting international trade alignments.

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Arvind Fashions is India’s leading casual and denim player, managing an elite portfolio including U.S. Polo Assn., Tommy Hilfiger, and Arrow. The company focuses on the high-growth mass-premium segment, targeting a 35 per cent digital revenue share by 2027. Established as a spinoff from Arvind Ltd, AFL is now an independent powerhouse in organized retail.

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24 January 2026, Mumbai

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) has announced the upcoming launch of its first ‘OWND!’ flagship in North India. Located at the Haiderpur Badli Metro Station in North West Delhi, the 8,500 sq. ft. ground-floor destination marks a significant northward expansion for the youth-centric label. This move aligns with a broader industry shift toward ‘Transit Retail,’ where high-traffic transport hubs are being repurposed into premium commercial zones to capture the daily commute of India’s 380 million-strong youth cohort.

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Capturing high-velocity trend demand

The Haiderpur launch is part of ABFRL’s aggressive roadmap to scale OWND! to 100 stores by FY26-end, with a long-term target of 400 outlets. By focusing on a ‘Hyper-Value’ segment where the majority of inventory sits below the Rs 999 price point, the brand is successfully challenging the 120-day traditional fashion cycle. This ‘Trend-First’ model has already driven a 24 per cent CAGR in the value fashion segment over the past year. The young consumer is reshaping the landscape with undeniable momentum; our strategy is a bold move to forge deep brand love through speed and relevance, states Sangeeta Tanwani, CEO, Pantaloons and OWND!.

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Engineering modern retail moats

The project, facilitated by Rahuul Kakkar-led Space Acquires, highlights a growing trend of transforming vacant urban infrastructure into high-performance retail assets.

As the Indian apparel market is projected to grow by 10.5 per cent in 2026, ABFRL is leveraging its vertically integrated supply chain to maintain 5-8 per cent EBITDA margins - a challenge for pure-play digital competitors.

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The Haiderpur store serves as a case study in ‘Vertical Mastery,’ combining ground-floor visibility with a localized inventory strategy designed to serve the high-density residential clusters of North West Delhi, effectively bridging the gap between digital discovery and physical fulfillment.

Launched in 2025 by ABFRL, OWND! is a movement-led fashion brand specializing in bold, contemporary apparel for the ‘generation in motion.’ With 55+ stores already operational, the brand targets a 3-5 year expansion to 400 outlets. Backed by Aditya Birla Group’s multi-crore retail infrastructure, it maintains a market-leading 10,000+ styles across street, work, and weekend wear.

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