Owing to dull retail market in the month of May apparel retailers like Arvind Brands and Madura forced to start discount sales since the second week of June, according to yarnsandfibres report.
Arvind Lifestyle has begun offering a 20-40 per cent discount right away in June for its Arrow brand. "We are yet to begin offering discounts for other brands. But due to sluggish sales in May, our peers had begun offering discounts in the formal men's wear, especially shirting category. Therefore, we also had to begin offering 20-40 per cent discounts on Arrow since June itself," informed Suresh, CEO, Arvind Lifestyle.
Apart from Arrow, Van Heusen and Louis Philippe also started offering discounts much early than the normal period of July. “Usually normal summer sales go on till June and hence 'end-of-season' sales begin in July. But this year May didn't see much of sales in apparels. This forced many apparel manufacturers and retailers to work on discounts even before the summer literally ended," said Rahul Mehta, president of Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI).
Mehta also launched discounted sales much early in the first week of June for his ladies wear brand 109F. "Also, since it is a bit early to launch discount sales, they are not being termed as 'end-of-the-season' sales. What's more, according to Mehta, the discount sales are being offered equally by international and domestic apparel brands in June," he added.
"We have already been affected due to the current slowdown, going forward if the strike continues it there is a huge possibility that there will be a supply crunch in the market, especially during the festive season," he informed.
According to Suresh, there was a similar discount sale as compared to last year and the industry is hopeful in early discount sales since it will help retailers to ease out their inventories.
Since leading mills in Ahmedabad are on strike, the apparel manufactures fear there will be a supply crunch in the coming festive season as they are already facing a problem in procuring fabrics for making apparel since such procurement for upcoming festive season begins around this time.
