Clarks, Future group to jointly retail footwear in India

October 1st, 2009 DHAKA - The Indian envoy to Bangladesh has offered to reduce the number of negative items on the bilateral trade list to facilitate commerce between the two neighbours. High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty has also mooted joint investments to boost bilateral trade between the two South Asian countries to offset the trade balance that is at present heavily tilted in New Delhi's favour.

September 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - BMW Group will introduce BMW Financial Services India as a new business entity in India. The new subsidiary is planned to be fully operational by the mid of 2010 and will be headquartered in Gurgaon.

July 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - With organised retail business in India yet to come out of the woods, a move is afoot to synergise the resources of the various retails chains for mutual benefit, a top retailer said here Thursday. "The situation is now better.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Four labourers were burnt to death Wednesday when the footwear factory they worked in was gutted in west Delhi, police said. Two men were working and five were sleeping in the factory in Sultanpur area at 4.30 a.m.

July 13th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The Indian footwear market has recently seen a demand shift from low-priced footwear to medium and high-priced products. But the huge potential that this development creates is as yet largely untapped.

July 3rd, 2009 Euro zone retail sales down 0.4 percent in MayLONDON — Retail sales fell in May in the 16 countries that use the euro, in a further sign that consumers aren't optimistic about their future in the midst of a deep and widespread recession. Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, says retail sales in the euro zone fell by 0.4 percent from the previous month.

June 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has asserted that India is determined to fight terrorism jointly with other countries. After meeting with representatives of SAARC nations here on Monday, Krishna said that India would try to find a path of sustainable development with energy security along with other global partners.

May 26th, 2009 KOLKATA - Footwear major Bata India has made an application to the defence forces to supply shoes, chairman P.M. Sinha said Tuesday.

April 29th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India as a retail market continues to be attractive to a lot of global players but the progression from expression of interest to the actual setting up of operations is slow, a survey conducted by a global real estate services firm indicates. Indian currently stands 39 on the list of most-preferred international retail markets, while neighbour China is high up in the list at number six, according to the survey done by CB Richard Ellis.

April 16th, 2009 BHOPAL/NEW DELHI - The 'footwear missile' struck again. This time the target was senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K.

April 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Britain-based leather footwear major Pavers England, which entered the Indian market last year, is planning to set up a manufacturing facility in the country, besides tying up with retail chains as part its expansion strategy. 'The agreement with Fly Flot is to set up a plant at Ranipet in Tamil Nadu at a cost of five million euros ($6.6 million),' said Pavers England Footprints chief executive Utsav Seth, referring to the pact with the Britain-based footwear maker and a subsidiary of Italian footwear major Lones Spa.

March 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Expressing sympathies over the terror attack on a Pakistani police academy, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that both countries should jointly take on terrorists. 'I have always said that India and Pakistan have to face jointly the scourge of terrorism,' he told reporters on the sidelines of the civil investiture ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.

February 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Satyam's fallen head Ramalinga Raju owned a whopping 321 pairs of shoes, but most Indians are content with a few, which they choose for comfort and durability rather than fashion, much to the chagrin of the footwear industry. 'We feel fashion only means clothing.

February 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Even as the retail trade industry in India faces one of its worst crises in recent years, Bata India, one of the country's largest footwear chains, plans to open 40 new stores across the country by March 31. 'These new stores will be based on the international format of Bata stores and will have an average size of 3,000 square feet,' the company said in a statement, making it clear that the outlets will not be small.

January 27th, 2009 CHENNAI - The global slowdown has started taking its toll on India's leather industry as production is already down and exporters expect around 20 percent fall in their order volumes, industry leaders said here Wednesday. 'The tanneries are now working at 30-40 percent capacity as against 80 percent utilisation last November (2008).