Leading textile company Raymond has said that due to COVID-19, April-June 2020 quarter has become the ‘the darkest hour of the fiscal’ and a recovery in the segment would take a ‘mid-term time frame’ when life is back to normalcy, primarily driven by occasion- and celebration-led dressing along with ongoing vaccination.
In its latest annual report, the company said that the demand for clothing, a non-essential item, with discretionary spending has been impacted.
It expects ‘modest growth’ in the fabric business with increasing competition from ready-made garments, besides low traction for the near term in the exports market due to the pandemic.
It is worth mentioning here that in 2020-21, sales of branded textiles had declined by nearly 46 per cent to Rs. 1,572 crore, as against Rs. 2,917 crore of 2019-20.
“Key sales drivers like impending wedding season, festivities and markets reopening fully are expected to amplify demand,” it added. While talking about its branded apparel business, the four differentiated brands – Raymond Ready to Wear (RRTW), Park Avenue, ColorPlus and Parx – had witnessed a 71.8 per cent decline in sales to Rs. 457 crore in 2020-21 as against Rs. 1,619 crore a year ago.
Besides, retail operations of the company, which operates in several formats including The Raymond Shop, exclusive brand outlets for its in-house brands, were also ‘majorly impacted’ due to the lockdowns in H1 FY2020- 21, it added.
The retail segment has challenges as the pandemic altered the trend of witnessing the substantial footfalls in malls mainly impacting enterprise business objects (EBOs) for short- to mid-term.
Raymond’s consolidated revenue stood at Rs. 3,648 crore for the financial year ended 31 March 2021. It had revenue of Rs. 6,578 crore in 2019-20.
