Brands
Shoppers Stop lays off 1100 employees
MUMBAI: India's oldest department store chain Shoppers Stop is planning to lay off over 1100 employees as well as shutting some of its lower-performing stores owing to the drop in sales.
A company spokesperson shared with Economic Times that the declining business has resulted in employee layoffs, further mentioning that considering the limitation on adding new stores in the current situation, the size of the brand’s business is effectively reduced, leaving them with no other option but to let go of employees in order to adjust the company’s cost base.
It has been reported that around 15 percent of the 7500 staff strength, mostly comprising junior and mid-level workers, have been asked to resign by 15 June.
Apparently, these include over 1000 employees from the front-end operations and nearly 160 belonging to the back-end processes.
All the affected employees will be given their salaries for two months on an immediate basis.
While Shoppers Stop confirmed its layoff plans, it also maintained that it will re-hire from the same set of people as soon as there’s an improvement in the situation.
Soon after the Government’s Unlock, 1.0 plan came into being, Shoppers Stop reopened 55 of its 90 department stores.
Brands
Faber-Castell India appoints Sunaina Haldar as director – marketing
With stints at Tata, SleepyCat and ADF Foods under her belt, Haldar is primed to redraw Faber-Castell’s brand story
MUMBAI: Faber-Castell India has poached Sunaina Haldar from ADF Foods, appointing her director – marketing as the German stationery brand looks to muscle up in a category that is rapidly reinventing itself around creativity and self-expression.
Haldar hit the ground running. “My first couple of weeks have been incredibly energising, understanding consumers, visiting markets, engaging with retailers and immersing myself into the world of Faber-Castell Group,” she said.
She arrives with considerable firepower. At ADF Foods, Haldar ran marketing across India and international markets for a portfolio spanning Ashoka, Aeroplane, Camel and ADF Soul. Before that, she was vice-president – marketing at direct-to-consumer mattress brand SleepyCat, where she helmed brand, content and performance marketing. Her résumé also includes a stint leading marketing, new product development and CRM for Tata SmartFoodz at Tata Consumer Products, no small proving ground.
Between corporate roles, Haldar also operated as a fractional CMO for early-stage startups, building marketing strategy and operational structures from scratch, a signal that she knows how to move fast with limited resources.
With 18 years straddling FMCG, D2C and the startup world, Haldar now takes the reins at a brand that has long owned the classroom but is clearly hungry for the living room. In a stationery market where the pencil has become a lifestyle statement, Faber-Castell has picked someone who knows exactly how to sell that story.
