'Demand for garments growing thanks to digitisation, social media'

Changing consumer preferences in garments have put apparel manufacturers in a spin with an increase in inventory and a need for focussed planning, says the Apparel Manufacturers of India.

“With fashions changing fast, especially the availability of imported apparel brands, the shelf life of designs has reduced, posing a challenge to the domestic garment industry,” Nikhil Furia, core team member of AMI said.

“Today there are many foreign brands in the market and they are upgrading consumer preferences. This ensures growth and the consumer is ready to spend more,” he told BusinessLine in an interaction.

The demand for garments has been growing, especially with digitisation, social networking sites and apps ensuring that people look their best. Earlier, there were only two order bookings – in summer and winter. Today, it happens every quarter with the launch of new designs, he said.

The growth rate in menswear brands is at 7-10 per cent, while women's and kidswear constitutes 15-20 per cent. The Indian apparel and textile industry is the second largest after agriculture, he added.

Furia was in Kochi for the AMI fair, a B2B meet organised by manufacturers and traders to expose their brands to retailers, multi-brand outlets and store chains ahead of the Onam festival season.

The fairs have been organised in Kochi, Chennai and Hyderabad. Since most of the apparel manufacturers and traders take their orders in a fragmented manner, the idea is to give them a platform where all the retailers find the best fashion options from Mumbai at one place, one time, he said.

He pointed out that there was a growing presence of retailers at such B2B meets, and the last meet organised in Chennai witnessed the participation of more than 700 retailers, placing orders worth ₹50 crore.

Buoyed by the response in B2B meets in South India, he said AMI intends to take the fair to international destinations such as Sri Lanka and Africa.

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