Australian shipping service provider Sendle has announced a three-way merger with US logistics companies FirstMile and ACI Logistix to form a new entity, FAST Group, that will support e-commerce businesses of all sizes.

Headquartered in California, with teams across the USA, Australia, Canada, India and the Philippines, FAST Group will leverage the combined knowledge, technology, infrastructure and operational experience of the three carriers. Each company will continue to operate under its established brand, all while functioning as a single, integrated and expanded logistics ecosystem.

ACI Logistix CEO Keith Somers will oversee the FAST Group as CEO, and the board will comprise representatives from all three companies.

Somers said, “Each of these three companies has a proud history of cultivating distinct strengths and deep insights into their respective customer needs. By combining our capabilities under FAST Group, we’re creating a complete and powerful logistics ecosystem that can support customers through their entire growth path, as they adapt and compete in an ever-evolving e-commerce landscape.

“This strategic merger, backed by Federation Asset Management, will bring added benefits for customers across all segments – SMB, mid-market and enterprise – through improved first-mile pickups, faster and complete national distribution and integrated customer support. It also presents exciting opportunities for our partners, including other carriers and technology providers, as we look to deliver more services, more innovation and more national impact.”

Author Credits- HAZEL KING
Parcel and postal technology INTERNATIONAL

Swedish retailer Ikea opened a digital store on Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com on Friday, as it expands its presence on third-party online shopping sites in China to draw in new customers with cut-price products.

Western retailers are experimenting with new formats and channels to take a bigger slice of China’s highly competitive e-commerce market, as the government expands policies meant to revive consumer spending.

Ikea, known for wooden bookshelves and beds, launched a 2,999 yuan ($417.50) gaming chair and 3,999 yuan gaming desk specially for JD.com – much more expensive offerings than its top-selling Billy bookcase priced at 249 yuan. But Ikea also plans to offer special discounts to mark the opening of the store which will sell 6,500 products, and use JD.com’s logistics network to deliver to homes.

JD.com is the second Chinese e-commerce platform Ikea has joined, after opening a store on Alibaba’s Tmall in March 2020.

“We will continue the great work we are doing (on Tmall), but now we are also adding JD.com as another channel to reach and acquire customers,” said Tolga Oncu, retail operations manager at Ingka Group, the biggest Ikea franchiser, which runs Ikea stores in China.

One in five new Ikea customers in China came from Tmall in the last financial year and that trend is going up, according to the company.

Ikea has also expanded its store network in China, with three new openings since September 1 last year, bringing the total number to 40. The JD.com launch is part of a 6.3 billion yuan ($877.03 million) investment Ingka plans in China by 2027. Ikea entered China in 1998 and the country was for several years in its top five markets by revenue, but has shrunk.

China’s share of Ingka Group’s overall sales has been flatlining, at 3.5% of global sales in the 2023-2024 financial year and 3.6% in 12 months before that. Ingka will report results for its 2024-2025 financial year, which ends on August 31, in October.

News Credits- FASHION NETWORK

DHL Group has reported its revenues fell 3.9% to €19.8bn (US$23bn) in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period the previous year.

However, operating profit grew 5.7% to €1.4bn (US$1.6bn) thanks to cost improvements and yield management, and gross capital expenditure fell by 4% to €608m (US$710m) compared to Q2 2024, despite a volatile global environment, the logistics giant said.

“In the second quarter, trade conflicts and geopolitical tensions increased, impacting global economic dynamics,” commented Melanie Kreis, CFO of DHL Group. “We anticipate continued volatility in the global economy in the second half of the year. Our focus on efficiency improvements and growth markets is paying off in this situation.

“We have adjusted our capacities to the volume development and achieved structural cost improvements. This combination has significantly contributed to earnings growth. We are working to further improve our efficiency and leverage growth opportunities in the current environment. Our diversified portfolio provides stability.”

Continuous investments in growth markets

As part of its Strategy 2030, DHL Group announced several investment programs, acquisitions and partnerships in Q2 2025, including investments in the Middle East of more than €500m (US$584m) between 2024 and 2030, with a focus on the rapidly growing Gulf markets of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The group is also expanding its capabilities in pharma logistics. In the second quarter, DHL Group completed the acquisition of Cryopdp, a provider of courier services for clinical trials, biopharma and cell and gene therapies, and also expanded its DHL Health Logistics Campus in Florstadt to create the central DHL pharma hub in Europe.

The company also announced the acquisition of IDS Fulfillment in the USA and a strategic partnership with Evri in the UK as part of the expansion of its growing e-commerce business.

Guidance unchanged

The company said it continues to “anticipate a subdued macroeconomic environment” but that cost improvements it is making are expected to positively contribute to earnings development. Based on these assumptions, the guidance for the 2025 financial year remains unchanged, with an expected operating result of at least €6bn (US$6.9bn) and a free cash flow (excluding mergers and acquisitions) of around €3bn (US3.5bn) billion. This outlook does not account for further potential escalation in tariff or trade policies as such developments could have substantial effects for DHL Group, the company stated.

Author Credits- HAZEL KING
Parcel and postal technology INTERNATIONAL

Indian exporters who built their businesses on Americans’ demand for affordable goods are redrawing their strategies and weighing alternatives to reduce the pain from US President Donald Trump’s shock 50% levy on imports.

Trump’s decision to double tariffs in the space of a week will make India-made apparels to generic drugs prohibitively expensive and can heavily disrupt exports, if not bring them to a grinding halt for many smaller businesses.

“This is worse than Covid for us,” said Lalit Thukral, founder of apparel exporter Twenty Second Miles, who fears the industry will have to sell his goods at a loss and comparing the tariff-led disruption to the coronavirus pandemic. “At least, there seemed to be an end to it. This tariff situation is just getting worse.”

While escalating tariffs pose an existential threat to small enterprises like Twenty Second Miles, the larger ones are considering coping tactics including relocating production lines to countries with a lower tariff barrier, tapping buyers in other geographies and exploring acquisitions in the US.

Gokaldas Exports Ltd., one of India’s largest apparel exporters that earns about 70% of its revenue from the US, plans to ramp up production in its factories in Kenya and Ethiopia which face just a 10% US levy.

“Africa is looking like a good source at the moment,” Gokaldas’ Managing Director Sivaramakrishnan Ganapathi said in an interview. “We are seeing a huge amount of inquiries for production from that region from American customers.”

The mitigating strategies will be a gut punch for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative and puncture any prospects to position India as an alternative manufacturing hotspot to China. Economists forecast that Trump tariffs could clip India’s gross domestic product by as much as 1%.

Trump has peppered his tariff onslaught with jibes about how the South Asian nation’s trade barriers were “obnoxious” and its economy “dead” — remarks that have drawn counter from India’s central bank. But businesses are hoping for more than just retorts.

Businesses thought “there would be more predictability,” according to Rohit Kumar, founding partner at public policy consultancy The Quantum Hub.

“In the short term, this threatens our China+1 strategy that India was positioning itself to benefit from. In the longer term, even this rerouting may not work for longer as policies could change,” Kumar said, referring to companies trying to recast supply chains.

Analysts Chetna Kumar and Adam Farrar weighed in: “The additional 25% oil penalty tariff would take the hit to US–bound exports to 60%, dragging GDP by 0.9%. This drop would be concentrated on the key items impacted by these tariffs such as gems and jewellery, textiles, footwear, carpets and agricultural goods — all labour-intensive industries.”

The revised US levy announced as a penalty for India’s purchases of Russian oil are set to take effect within 21 days, providing time for hectic parlays between New Delhi and Washington DC.

In the meantime, companies are working on hedging strategies. Tata Group’s Titan Ltd., which sells jewellery, is considering shifting some manufacturing to the Middle East which has lower duties on shipments into the US, Reuters reported Tuesday.

Welspun Living Ltd., which sells home fabrics in the US, told analysts last week that it is looking at the UK, European Union, Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and Japan to reduce reliance on the American market.

SNQS International, based in the textile hub of Tiruppur in southern India, gets about 20% of its business from the US but is now looking to double down on European nations, according to its founder V. Elangovan.

Larger textile manufacturers are also grabbing smaller, low-value orders to keep their factories running and avoid shutdowns, Thukral of Twenty Second Miles said. This risks crowding out the smaller firms.

Indian trade bodies across affected industries, including apparel, gems and jewellery, and shrimps, are ramping up calls of support from the Modi government.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry wants the government to “fast track” measures to limit the hardship faced by local apparel exporters while an industry body for shrimp exporters is seeking export incentive programs.

The Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council wants duty drawbacks, pre-shipment loans and deferring interest on working capital facilities, Chairman Kirit Bhansali said in a statement.

News Credits- FASHION NETWORK

Germany’s Henkel on Thursday said it was betting on innovative products that help the consumer goods and adhesives maker save costs, as it raised the lower end of its adjusted return on sales forecast range.

The maker of Persil laundry detergent and Schwarzkopf hair products said the strategy was helping it raise prices at a time when consumers are increasingly watching their spending amid increasing global economic uncertainty.

“Better contributions due to innovations are putting us in a position to charge higher prices in some cases,” CEO Carsten Knobel said on a call with reporters.

Knobel said the company’s hair business along with its electronics and industrial business were growing at the fastest pace.

“It is precisely these things that enable us to achieve significantly higher gross margins,” he said.

Henkel merged its beauty care, laundry, and home care brands under one consumer brands division in 2022.

Knobel said the company is well on track to reach or even exceed the savings of 525 million euros targeted at its consumer brands unit by the end of 2025.

Henkel forecast full-year adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) margin in the 14.5-15.5% range, up from 14.0-15.5% previously.

However, it said that the challenging macroeconomic environment was hampering organic growth. It expects its organic sales to grow between 1% and 2% this year, having previously forecast organic sales growth between 1.5% and 3.5%.

Henkel said its updated outlook continues to take into account the currently foreseeable effects of the global tariff agreements.

European consumer goods companies are revamping their businesses to try to cushion the blow of rising costs, uncertainty over U.S. trade policy, and waning consumer confidence.

The group’s adjusted EBIT margin in the first half came in at 15.5%, up from 14.9% a year ago, and beating the analysts’ average estimate of 15.1% in a Vara Research poll.

Henkel shares were up 2.7% as of 1005 GMT.

Author Credits- Bartosz Dabrowski and Matthias Inverardi
Reuters

As part of the brand’s transformation journey, Bata India, the most iconic and trusted footwear brand, has taken a significant leap in its transformation journey with a ₹300 million investment in its Batanagar factory, reinforcing its commitment to manufacturing excellence & global competitiveness.

At the helm of this investment is the installation of the state-of-the-art PUDIP (Polyurethane Direct Injection Process) & IM EVA machines used for manufacturing Floatz & Bata Industrial footwear. These next-generation systems feature robotic spraying, automated roughening arms, and mould handling processes that raise the bar on product consistency, precision, and production efficiency.

“This investment reflects our deep commitment to modernising our manufacturing and leading with quality,” said Anjan Kundu, Head – Supply Chain Management, Bata India Ltd.

Kundu adds, “We are bringing back the glory to Batanagar as part of our transformation journey, which is rooted in a deep commitment to quality, innovation, and customer experience. By investing in advanced machines at Batanagar, we are ensuring that Bata continues to lead, adapt, and serve as a benchmark for footwear manufacturing in India. This expansion not only strengthens our operations but also sets new standards for the industry.”

The factory follows comprehensive Safety Management systems to ensure the highest standards of health & safety protocols for a safe working environment for all employees. The Batanagar factory is a symbol of industrial transformation for not just West Bengal but for India. Thomas Bata’s historic visit in the 1930s catalyzed the creation of the exclusive township of Batanagar, an essential turning point for the state’s industrial landscape. Bata’s factory units revolutionized the region’s capabilities, supporting Bengal’s evolution into an export hub and a center of shoemaking excellence.

Approximately 130 new stores opened in the past year, with over 50% located in smaller towns, bringing global styles and comfort technology to ‘Bharat.’ With more than 500+ stores, Bata India is also rapidly expanding its Franchise network across smaller towns and cities to democratize fashion, providing entrepreneurial opportunities for many. Bata continues to support communities through its Bata Children’s Program, empowering underserved children across India with access to education, mentorship, and footwear—symbolising the brand’s ongoing commitment to inclusive growth and positive social impact.

With a sharpened focus on quality, sustainability, and innovation, Bata India is redefining what it means to be a heritage brand ready for the future—boldly stepping forward to ‘Shoe the World’ from India.

News Credits- FASHION BUSINESS

Indian apparel retailer Trent (TREN.NS) posted its slowest quarterly profit growth in at least 10 on Wednesday, as muted urban demand and early monsoons hit in-store shopping.

The Tata group company, which owns the popular affordable fashion chain “Zudio”, reported a net profit of 4.3 billion rupees ($49.03 million), up 9.5% from a year ago.

Trent’s first-quarter consolidated revenue grew 19%, its slowest since the quarter ended March, 2021, further fueling concerns among analysts that the company’s operating performance is set to slow down from its peak even as valuations remain firm.

The company’s Zudio-led focus on young adults who regularly open their wallets for trendy but affordable styles has yielded a compounded annual revenue growth rate of more than 35% in the past five years.

The growth led to more than a five-fold rise in Trent’s stock value from 2023 to 2024 and drove its inclusion in the benchmark Nifty 50 index last year.

Trent attributed the quarter’s slowdown to a high base of growth last year, a prolonged weakness in urban demand amid high living costs, supply chain disruptions in certain areas, and an early monsoon curbing in-store shopping.

Its first-quarter same store sales grew in “low single digits”, compared to a “double-digit” percentage growth last year, Trent said.

However, its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) margin improved to 11.4% from 10.6% a year ago, benefiting from better merchandise sourcing and investments in automation.

Analysts pinned their hopes of Trent’s next phase of growth to its ongoing expansion in smaller Indian cities, where the adoption of fashion trends is slower than metros, but growing fast.

($1 = 87.6950 Indian rupees)

News Credits- Reuters