With the robust growth in the women's innerwear line, Page Industries, the franchisee for Jockey International, continues to outperform peers in current fiscal. The Bangalore-based company had made a strategic move in 2009 by introducing a women's innerwear line and backed it up with increased number of retail outlets. The move seems to have paid off as women's range now contributes almost 25 per cent to its topline. Helped by the robust volumes growth and ability to raise prices despite a slowing economy, the company has recorded 31 per cent growth in net sales for the quarter ended September 2013 compared with the year ago period. While the competitors like Maxwell Industries Ltd witnessed a 10 per cent decline in sales during the period and Lovable Lingerie saw revenues growing by just 5 per cent.
Volumes of the company grew 14.8 per cent in the September quarter and brokerage firms believe that the company will be able to maintain volume growth of 14 per cent and above in the current fiscal as well as in next fiscal. From the period starting January 1, 2013 till the stock market closing on November 22, 2013, the stock of the company has risen over 40 per cent while the benchmark Sensex has just seen a rise of 4 per cent. The stocks of Maxwell Industries and Lovable Lingerie have seen a plunge of 20 per cent each during the period under review. In the previous fiscal ended March 2013, Page Industries, which also owns franchise of swimwear brand Speedo, outperformed peers like KPR Mills, Gokaldas Exports, Sudar Industries in terms of Profit after Taxes (PAT) by wide margin. Page Industries' FY'13 PAT stood at Rs 112.53 crore as against Rs 100 crore for KPR Mills and Rs 25.56 crore for Sudar Industries. The company's Net Profit Margin (NPM) ratio stood at 12.84 per cent as of FY'13 versus 6.74 per cent for KPR Mills and -11.53 per cent for Gokaldas Exports. Its 3-year NPM ratio at 12.44 per cent also beats peers by a wide gap.
