Hosiery industry eyes double-digit growth

As winter gets severe upcountry, the hosiery industry is expecting brisk business. For the record, the Hosiery Manufacturers Association is looking forward to a 10 to 15 per cent growth in business this season, compared to last year. The figure, which was announced recently by association president K B Aggarwal, is one that industrialists back in Punjab like to believe. For, they are expecting the cold weather to last longer this time around.

After all, a prolonged and pronounced winter last year left the hosiery manufacturers with no stocks to carry forward, denoting good business. The Knitwear and Apparel Manufacturers Association of Ludhiana is optimistic about growth, though is not sure about translating it into a figure.

“The stocks booked earlier by the buyers have now started clearing,” notes Sudershan Jain, a member of the association. “We are optimistic about clearing the stocks by this month-end.”

Yet, hosiery manufacturers think profitability this year will be less compared to previous years. As for Jain, he attributes his suspicion to a hike in input costs in the wake of factors that include labour shortage. “The (resultant) higher wages is likely to eat into our profits,” he notes.

Estimates show that Ludhiana’s knitted apparel cluster, which gives employment to 4 lakh people directly and indirectly is facing a shortage of around 1 lakh labourers in skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled category.

Also, a 10 per cent excise duty on 45 per cent of the MRP imposed in this year’s Union budget is impacting the business.

On his part, Aggarwal notes that the country’s Rs 8,000-crore hosiery market currently has an equal percentage of branded players and non-branded players. “Of late, but, the advantage has slowly shifted towards non-branded segment,” he notes. The market share of this could rise in coming years, he adds.