₹1,125 crore in the September quarter (Q2FY24). Page holds the exclusive licence for the manufacture, marketing and distribution of Jockey brand in India and some more countries. It also holds the sole licence for Speedo brand in India.
Volumes were impacted by muted demand, which led to excess inventory in the system. A high base also played spoilsport to some extent. Thus, the company missed analysts’ expectations on revenue in Q2.
What’s more, the demand environment is not likely to pick up pace any time soon. Page sees some stress in the urban and mid-premium segments. In men’s innerwear, it notes that consumers have not downgraded but the buying quantity has reduced.
So the company hopes that sales will get a boost from the festival season in Q3. However, according to Nuvama Research, it is not certain how salient the innerwear category is to a spike during festival season. This means that festive season may or may not be a catalyst for Page to revive volumes.
There is some respite on the margin front. Despite the fall in revenue, Page clocked about 140 basis points year-on-year expansion in the Ebitda margin to 20.8%. This was led by stable raw material costs and a fall in employee expenses and advertisement costs.
Page plans to maintain Ebitda margin in the 19-21% range going ahead. Since the company is investing in some digital initiatives, some adverse impact on the margin cannot be ruled out. Ebitda is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Read more on livemint.com