Brands
Splash eyes revenues of Rs 150 crore; plans 21 stores by year-end
BENGALURU: The Landmark Group’s international youth oriented hi-street value fashion brand Splash is eyeing revenues of Rs 150 crore this year. The brand, closed last year with 12 stores across India and is planning to increase the count to 21 by the end of 2015.
Additionally, company sources told Indiantelevision.com that Splash was also looking at spending more than five per cent of its revenues towards ATL and BTL activities.
Splash has 200 stores globally, had revenues of Rs 90 crore last year across an average store count of eight in India.
In 2015, the brand has already launched four new stores including one in Mumbai taking the count to 16. Now, Splash has unveiled its 17th store in the country in Bengaluru’s hi-street – Commercial Street, on 23 May. Next on the cards is a store launch in Noida in the near future.
At the Bengaluru store opening, Splash also launched its new collection Love Summer.
“Splash is consistently involved in delivering high fashion season after season. We are delighted to bring out the best of the brand’s personality and sync it with our new collection – #LoveSummer – this season’s key collection, which has an easy tropical vibe to it. Consumers have received the collection very well. It is young, tropical, quirky and conversational – a true reflection of our customer. With Splash’s launch at Commercial Street, we look forward to increase our reach to the fashion enthusiasts of Bangalore,” said Splash COO Kalyan Kumar.
“Our ATL activities include bursts of radio a week either way of a new store opening or the launch of a new product line, with some print and online campaigns. We also do a number of BTL activities, like in the case of the store launch today, where we have the band ‘Peepal Tree’ performing at the store. A number of models wearing Splash attire that will along a part of Commercial Street before entering the store and walking the ramp set up for the fashion show organized by Sheetal Mehra,” Kumar added.
“In the middle east, we are present on television and across many locations. In India, presently we are located in 10 cities. Once we reach a reasonably good store count in the country, we will use television as we do in other geographies,” informed Kumar.
The average Splash store witnesses around 400 customer walk-ins daily, with an average conversion rate of 30 per cent. Some of the stores located in hi-streets and malls have a conversion rate that is as high as 38 per cent, while the laggards report rates of around 24- 26 per cent.
Splash’s online campaigns cover the usual social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube. Mindshift along with the company manages the online creative duties for the Splash, while media buying is done by the parent group Landmark through GroupM.
Brands
Amazon Q1 revenue jumps 17 per cent to $181.5bn, profit soars to $30.3bn
AWS surges 28 per cent while AI bets reshape cash flow and drive future growth
SEATTLE: Amazon kicked off 2026 with a strong first quarter, reporting a 17 per cent year-on-year jump in net sales to $181.5 billion, up from $155.7 billion in the same period last year, as growth across cloud, advertising, and retail continued to gather pace.
Excluding a $2.9 billion favourable impact from foreign exchange, sales still rose a solid 15 per cent, underlining broad-based demand across its businesses.
The company’s cloud arm, Amazon Web Services, remained the star performer, with revenue climbing 28 per cent to $37.6 billion. Operating income for AWS reached $14.2 billion, up from $11.5 billion a year ago, reinforcing its role as Amazon’s profit engine.
Meanwhile, North America sales rose 12 per cent to $104.1 billion, while international revenue increased 19 per cent to $39.8 billion, or 11 per cent excluding currency effects.
Profit growth outpaced revenue. Operating income climbed to $23.9 billion from $18.4 billion last year, while net income surged to $30.3 billion, or $2.78 per share, compared with $17.1 billion, or $1.59 per share, in the first quarter of 2025. A significant boost came from $16.8 billion in pre-tax gains linked to Amazon’s investment in Anthropic.
Cash generation also strengthened, with operating cash flow rising 30 per cent to $148.5 billion over the trailing twelve months. However, free cash flow dropped sharply to $1.2 billion from $25.9 billion, largely due to a $59.3 billion increase in capital expenditure, primarily tied to artificial intelligence investments.
Commenting on the results, Amazon president and CEO Andy Jassy said, “We’re making customers’ lives easier and better every day across all our businesses, and their response is driving significant growth.”
He added that AWS growth of 28 per cent marked its fastest pace in 15 quarters, while Amazon’s chips business crossed a $20 billion annual revenue run rate, growing at triple-digit rates. Advertising revenue also crossed $70 billion on a trailing twelve-month basis, and store unit growth hit 15 per cent, its highest since the tail end of pandemic lockdowns.
Artificial intelligence remained front and centre of Amazon’s strategy. The company deepened partnerships with OpenAI, Meta, NVIDIA and Uber, while expanding its proprietary chip ecosystem including Trainium and Graviton.
Amazon revealed that it has already deployed over 2.1 million AI chips in the past year and plans to roll out more than one million NVIDIA GPUs starting in 2026. OpenAI alone is expected to consume around two gigawatts of Trainium capacity for advanced AI workloads beginning in 2027.
The company also highlighted rapid adoption of its AI services, with Amazon Bedrock processing more tokens in the first quarter than in all previous years combined, and customer spending on the platform rising 170 per cent quarter-on-quarter.
Beyond cloud and AI, Amazon continued to scale its consumer and logistics ecosystem. It delivered more than one billion items via same-day or overnight delivery so far in 2026 and expanded ultra-fast delivery services across multiple global markets. Prime Video also saw strong engagement, including sports streaming growth and box office success for original content like Project Hail Mary, which has grossed nearly $615 million globally.
Looking ahead, Amazon expects second-quarter net sales to reach between $194 billion and $199 billion, representing growth of 16 per cent to 19 per cent year-on-year. Operating income is projected between $20 billion and $24 billion.
Despite macro uncertainties ranging from foreign exchange fluctuations to global economic conditions, Amazon appears to be leaning into its biggest bets yet. With AI investments accelerating and cloud demand holding firm, the company is positioning itself not just for growth, but for what it calls the next big inflection in technology and commerce.
