September quarter brings relief to apparel retailers as sales pick up

As per analyst Edelweiss Securities, the September quarter brought some respite for Indian retailers with sales in inner-wear, grocery, quick-service restaurants, jewellery and apparel retail picking up. Analysts’ report, revenue decline of Page Industries narrowed to 4.5 per cent year-on-year during the September quarter as against a 66 per cent decline in the June quarter. However, it lagged behind other retailers like Rupa, Lux and Dollar which registered 5-9 per cent sales growth during the second quarter.

Recovery for other apparel retailers was slow, partly due to the comparatively higher discretionary nature of the products, besides lower footfall. Even so, Trent and V-Mart Retail saw better revival compared to Shoppers Stop and Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail. In the footwear category, revenues of Relaxo Footwears declined by 7 per cent year-on-year as against those of Bata India whose revenues declined by 49 per cent year-on-year. According to IIFL, this is on account of stronger demand for open footwear brands over closed footwear.