Page Industries, the exclusive licensee of Jockey and Speedo in India, aims to be a one-billion-dollar company in the next five years, CEO and Executive Director VS Ganesh said.
The Bengaluru-based company on Monday announced the opening of the 1,000th exclusive brand store (EBS) of Jockey in India. It is focusing on deeper penetration for accelerated growth and aims to double the number of stores in the coming years with a special focus on smaller tier II & III markets besides the metro markets.
The company will invest to increase its capacities and improve supplies and as per its strategy, is focusing on women’s innerwear segment, kids segments besides the athleisure wear which has gained prominence after the pandemic, he added.
“Our aspiration is to be a one-billion-dollar company by the year 2026, which would mean close to 2.5–2.75 times growth in the next five years for which we are working pretty hard. We are very clear as how to get there, and for that, we would continue to focus on expansion and have a better presence in India to reach more people across more markets through retail, e-commerce, omni distribution channels,” Ganesh told PTI.
The company would focus on strengthening its supply chain to produce and supply, amplify its reach and the distribution with value for money proposition products to consumers to achieve one billion dollar sales target, he added.
For the financial year ended March 31, 2021 Page Industries had reported sales of Rs 2,833 crore. It was at Rs 2,945.5 crore in the per-pandemic financial year 2019-20.
The company had reported almost 76.08 per cent growth in revenue from operations in April-June this fiscal to Rs 501.53 crore. “We have been doing pretty good and the last quarter has been excellent, and things are normalising, so we seem to be in a good spot,” Ganesh said.
According to him, though Jockey is a “dominant player” and a leading apparel brand, its market share in the men’s innerwear space is only around 18 per cent and there is enough room for growth for Page Industries and other players which are coming into the segment.
“We are on the runway, we have not yet taken off,” he said adding “we are very bullish” about the market. With a shift of consumer preference towards e-commerce, Page Industries is well prepared and has invested in technology to cater to the trend besides expanding offline also.
“We will aggressively work on expanding our footprints both on the muti brand outlet (MBO) side and on modern trade with a lot of focus on e-commerce and omnichannel as well because those are the channels that are going to be the fast-growing ones,” he said.
Page Industries had witnessed” tremendous traction” on e-commerce, where the contribution of the online channel in its revenue has gone up by almost three folds from 3 per cent to 8 per cent.
“We are channelising a lot of energy, a lot of investments in technologies,” he said. From product category point of view, Ganesh said Page Industries is putting “focus on the women’s innerwear segment and the kids'' segments” as well because these are the growing categories and are comparatively new and are growth points for the company.
On the growth of the athleisure wear segment, Ganesh said after the pandemic, people are getting health conscious, are spending more time on being active and being fit as they have understood its importance.
While talking about its second brand Speedo, under which it sells swimwear, Ganesh said, it's a “tough time” for it as swimming pools are closed after the pandemic.
“So, there is hardly any sales where Speedo is concerned. But it is a question of time. We always look at these businesses in long term. We are fully confident about the potential the category offers in the long run. Our long-term outlook on that category is bullish as India is getting more and more active,” he said.
When asked as to whether Page Industries would go for a licence for other brands for the Indian market, Ganesh said:” As far as acquiring other brands are concerned we have nothing on our radar as of now because there is so much to do with this brand Jockey, for which we have a licence in other territories also other than India.”
According to him, Page Industries has “huge potential” to grow into international markets in its licence territories.
(With inputs from PTI)
