Demand for lifestyle products, apparel and footwear remains down in smaller towns due to overall inflationary. .
“Definitely more supply in terms of value retail space in tier 2 and tier 3 towns compared to pre-Covid times,” said Lalit Agarwal, president of the hypermarket chain V-Mart, told analysts. “We’ve seen a lot of new stores built in the last three years, and almost 50%-60% of the stores are built by us as well as by our competitors. Demand certainly hasn’t increased as much as we did. expected.”
Unlike the previous slowdown in the value segment, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (AFRL) saw dwindling growth across segments in the January-March quarter. retail expansion guide in trouser has also been revised down to 40-50 stores from 60-70 previously due to slowing demand in small cities. AFRLhowever, are hoping sentiment will improve during this year’s festive period.
“At this point, we’d like to acknowledge the reality that business has faced over the past few quarters and the weakness we continue to experience, especially in smaller towns, and that’s part of it. of the expansion that we wanted to slow down a bit,” Ashish DikshitaABFRL executives told investors.
Most apparel and lifestyle retailers have increased prices across categories over the past year, especially after cotton prices rose due to higher shipping costs and a depreciating rupee. Now companies are hoping the trend will reverse.
Satyen Momaya, CEO of the French apparel brand said: “Although the January-March quarter was slow, consumption improved slightly in April and this month, the performance even even better. So we expect some monthly recovery at lower prices.” Celio.
Sales of lifestyle, apparel and discretionary products fell for a second straight month to 6% in April on a high base a year ago. While retail sales surged at a steady double-digit rate over the past year, growth slowed to 6% in both March and April, according to the report. Retailers Association of India (RAI), showed the slowest sales growth in more than 14 months.
