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Jun 1, 2016
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CMAI: Apparel industry clocked moderate growth in FY16

By
Fibre2Fashion
Published
Jun 1, 2016

India’s apparel industry clocked in moderate growth in the fiscal 2015-16, the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India’s (CMAI’s) annual Apparel Index showed.


India’s apparel industry clocked in moderate growth in the fiscal 2015-16.


CMAI’s apparel index value of 5.32 points in 2015-16 was much lower than the Apparel Index for fiscal 2014-15 at 7.28. “In fact, 205-16 was a ‘not so buoyant’ period with even with the presence of the festive season, perceived as a season that helps in making up for turnover losses as consumer sentiment is at its best at that time, not recording very high growth,” CMAI’s report on the Apparel Index said.

The index value for the last quarter of the financial year 2015-16, registered the lowest growth at 3.79 among the four quarters and it grew the most during the July-September 2015 quarter at 6.68, indicating business growth during this quarter which is dominated by the EOSS and pre-festive quarter. This was closely followed by the April-June 2015 quarter, known for the summer season that generally sees rise in fresh sales.

Right from the first quarter during the fiscal year, all indicators—sales turnover, sell through and investments, reflected a consistent fall in growth value in successive quarters, the report said.

The July-September 2015 quarter was the best performing quarter of FY 2015-16, except for the inventory holding criterion, which showed a significant improvement perhaps due to the offloading of inventories during the EOSS.

Interestingly, a comparison of last two financial years shows that the index fell in the first three quarters in both years. But in the fourth quarter of FY 2014-15, the index showed strong rebound, whereas in the fourth quarter of FY 2015-16, the growth further reduced. This pattern was seen in all performance attributes: sales turnover, sell through, investment and inventory holding in both financial years.

The index reflects that small brands have grown the least while large giant brands have consistently done better. Bidhyut Nath, head of advertising and marketing, Dollar, explains, “Dollar industries have been diversifying in the premium apparel segment for the last two years. There were new brand launches in premium segments. Hence, both production and advertising increased in the past one year.” As Anant Daga, CEO, W and Aurelia, says, “We increased our investments as we saw an increase in sales turnover and sell through in the quarter. Aurelia is expanding, the products are being received well in the market and we are seeing a robust same store sale growth.”

An analysis of the apparel index indicates that it is important to manage the two most important interdependent parameters—sales turnover and inventory holding. The latter bogs down the index; hence clearing inventories, even at discounts, gives a huge boost to the sales turnover. However, this does affect the sell through to an extent.

Independently increased investment also adds to the sales turnover, unless the investment is entrapped in inventory holding, which further pulls down the growth.

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