A Report on CMAI’s Apparel Index for the First Quarter (April-June 2015) shows that large and giant brands are doing much better than small and mid-level brands and that the Apparel Index has grown by 6.2 points.
The index reveals that the industry continued its upward growth curve with the overall index value recording 6.2 points. Much like the previous quarters, it is the bigger brands which have done far better with higher sales turnover and lower inventory holding.Small and mid-level brands are lagging behind on all accounts—be it sales turnover, sell through, inventory holding or investment. But there is a sense of optimism where most are predicting good or excellent future growth.
At a 6.2 point growth, the figure is approximately 54 per cent higher than the index for small brands (with turnovers of R10 to 25 crore). Small brands have grown by 4.03 points while mid brands (with turnovers of R25 to 100 crore) grown by 6.75 points. In fact, mid brands performed much better than small brands. But the actual success stories were the large brands (with turnovers of R100-300 crore), that have grown by 7.93 points and the giant brands (with turnovers of above R300 crore), that have a high index value of 10.67 points. The first quarter index clearly indicates that large and giant brands are doing much better than small and mid-level ones. The Index pattern this quarter, much like last quarter, reflects that as the size of brands have gone up, the performance has improved. Interestingly, sales turnover also increases in the same pattern and, inverse, in the case of inventory holding.
A comparison of apparel index of the first quarter April-June 2014 and the first quarter April-June 2015, reveals that the Index value was higher, at 9.15, last year compared to 6.2 this year. Overall, the apparel industry failed to maintain growth against the same quarter last year on all aspects. Low consumer spending further affected the sales turnover. But nearly 48 per cent of the brands feel that the outlook for the next quarter, from July to September, is good.
