Page Industries to up capacity by 30%

Sportswear and inner garments maker Page Industries, which went public in March last calendar year, plans to expand its manufacturing capacity by 30 per cent to produce 74 million pieces per annum from the existing 57 million pieces.

The Bangalore-based company intends to expand its manufacturing capacity over the next two years. The company had received IPO proceeds of Rs 50.84 crore. While Rs 8.64 crore has been spent on a setting up a new manufacturing plant at Bommasandra in Bangalore, another Rs 4.67 crore has gone towards expanding its existing plant.

Page Industries has invested Rs 23.7 crore in bank FDs and accounts. "We are seeing a strong demand for sportswear and inner garments. We will continue to expand at our existing locations in a phased manner by utilising the IPO proceeds," Page Industries MD Sunder Genomal told Business Standard.

The company holds a licence from Jockey International Inc (USA) to manufacture and distribute the Jockey brand of innerwear and other apparel products in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It also exports products to Jockey licensees in Europe, West Asia, US and UK.

"The retail boom that we are witnessing now, coupled with the increased brand consciousness and spending power of consumers, will aid our growth in the inner wear and leisure wear segments," Genomal added.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 6.52 crore during the third quarter of the current fiscal while the total sales for the period was Rs 53 crore.

As against a net profit of Rs 17 crore and total income of Rs 138 crore during 2006-07, Page Industries has already recorded a Rs 19.46 crore net profit and Rs 150 crore revenue during the first nine months of the current fiscal.

"We expect higher sales this year and intend to close the fiscal with a significant improvement in revenue. Sales have been growing at a CAGR of 36 per cent while the net profit is growing at a CAGR of 48 per cent during the last three years," Genomal stated.

He said the company is not keen on supplying products to any other private label for the time being. "Our relationship with Jockey brand is very old. We want to grow with the Jockey brand," he said.