Page Industries, the Indian licensee for Jockey, sees a dip in quarterly profit despite growing sales volumes, as increased input costs and logistical challenges impact profitability.
Page Industries, the Indian licensee for Jockey International, reported a weaker first quarter on Thursday as higher input costs and logistics issues weighed on profitability even though sales volumes continued to grow. The company said net profit for the three months ended June 30 fell to 1.93 billion rupees, or $20.22 million, from 2.01 billion rupees a year earlier, while revenue from operations rose 7.9% to 14.2 billion rupees.
The result suggested some resilience in demand after a difficult stretch for the apparel maker. Page said sales volumes increased 5.7%, faster than the 1.9% rise recorded in the same quarter a year earlier. Still, that improvement did not fully feed through to revenue because short-term logistics disruptions limited the company’s ability to meet demand, although Page said conditions had begun to stabilise and expected the effect to be temporary.
Margins came under pressure as the cost of cotton and synthetic fibres rose, pushing expenses up 10.5% and outpacing sales growth. Operating profit margin slipped to 20.3% from 22.4% a year earlier. In a note cited by Business Recorder, PhillipCapital said retail consumption improved in April and May before easing in June, while price increases helped soften the blow of higher raw-material costs.
The latest figures follow a volatile period for Page Industries. Reports from Economic Times and broker research showed the company suffered steep profit and margin declines in earlier quarters, including a sharp fall in the quarter to March 2023, when weak demand, higher inventories and lower capacity use hurt performance. Page’s shares were down 4.7% after the results.
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