Page Industries rallies 8% in three days; hits new high in a weak market

Shares of Page Industries hit a new high of Rs 52,474, as the stock gained 2.5 per cent on the BSE in Thursday's intra-day trade. The stock of the garments and apparels maker rallied 8 per cent in three days in an otherwise weak market. In comparison the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.39 per cent at 59,227 points at 10:17 AM.

However, in the past three months, the stock price of Page Industries has soared 35 per cent, as compared to 14 per cent rise in the benchmark index. The strong outperformance of Page Industries was on the back of strong operational performance in April-June quarter (Q1FY23).

The company's revenue grew 167 per cent year-on-year (YoY) and 21 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) at Rs 1,341 crore. EBITDA was at Rs 298 crore, while margins were at 22.2 per cent, up 771 per cent YoY and 11 per cent QoQ, led by operating efficiencies.

The company is the exclusive licensee of JOCKEY International Inc. (USA) to manufacture, distribute, and market JOCKEY brands in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Maldives, Bhutan, and the UAE. Page Industries is also the exclusive licensee of Speedo International in India.

An uptick in consumer consumption and increase in fashion or brand consciousness is making consumers more aspirational and discerning. Going foward, the company expects that the growing urban women population and women corporate workforce are better growth opportunities.

The management said tier 2 and 3 centres are also becoming an important marketplace for the company given the increased awareness of healthier lifestyle and availability of quality, functional innerwear and athleisurewear.

"Buoyed by strong wedding/festive season and a normalised quarter after a gap of two years, lifestyle retailers displayed a strong show with robust topline growth. Retail sector appears to be on the cusp of delivering strong sustained revenue growth driven by improved consumer sentiment, wardrobe refresh and increased spend on discretionary purchases as consumer wallet share on non-essentials had remained subdued for last two years," ICICI Securities said in retail sector update.

Going ahead, the company aims at capacity expansion with increased infrastructure and facilities. This will allow scalability and ramp up of incremental machinery and manpower to meet expected demand growth. Besides that, the company has also significantly expanded their presence by opening several exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) along with large format stores, multi brand outlets, thereby, ensuring brand availability and accessibility across the country, said Page Industries in FY22 annual report.