CMAI survey: 77 percent of Indian clothing manufacturers disappointed with poor sales

A survey by the Clothing Manufacturing Association of India (CMAI) to assess the business trends in the recently concluded wedding season indicated that as many as 77 percent of the respondents witnessed average to poor sales during the period.

CMAI spoke to 110 wedding clothing manufacturers, of which over 60 percent of respondents attributed the weak performance to general economic slowdown, while 14 percent attributed it to high prices.

However, 13 percent respondents felt the lesser number of auspicious dates as compared to the previous season contributed to the drop in sales.

Speaking about the domestic current state of the Indian apparel industry, Rajesh Masand, president, CMAI, said in a release: “Currently the market is seeing a fairly significant slowdown, which has been caused by the overall inflationary conditions in the market. The first quarter of the current financial year is likely to be disappointing for the industry, and the impact is being felt by both the value as well as the upper segments of consumers.”

A majority of 83 percent of the respondents revealed that there has been ‘no growth’ compared to the 2022 wedding season. 40 percent indicated a drop in sales between 10 percent to 25 percent over the previous year.

Almost 85 percent of retailers indicated that economically priced products fared better than the more expensive varieties. Lighter embroideries and pastel colours were more in demand as per the survey results.

“Exposure to western culture with accessibility to content over social media platforms are influencing the dressing patterns, and fashion sense amongst the youth, which is causing a gradual shift from traditional clothing to western clothing especially in the women’s wear segment. On the other hand, some sort of a ‘return to tradition’ is being seen in the men’s wear segment, with more men wanting to wear traditional clothing during festivals and weddings,” added Rahul Mehta, chief mentor, CMAI.

According to the industry body, the Indian apparel industry has been growing at a fairly consistent rate of 8 to 10 percent per annum. Post-pandemic the apparel industry witnessed a revival in the year 2022 with consumers going back to the physical stores and markets, and the year 2022-23 is estimated to have grown by between 15 to 20 percent.

However, with the costs of raw materials as well as overall cost of production having gone up substantially, this growth has been entirely price-led, and the volumes are still below the previous year by 3 to 5 percent.