Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), maintains that India is well-placed to ride through an uncertain global economic environment. At the 15th Annual General Meeting of ABFRL, he said the economy will show medium-to-long-term growth recovery and ABFRL is on track to a achieve a revenue of ₹21,000 crore by 2026.

Speaking about the current economic scenario, Birla said India is not devoid of global economic turbulences; however, it is well-placed to ride through the uncertain environment. “India has a robust pipeline of infrastructure projects. In addition, the government’s pragmatic policies such as the production-linked incentive schemes are helping. Many industries have witnessed fresh project investment announcements,” he said.

“Thus, while businesses will need to remain on guard regarding financial market volatility and cost pressures this year, one expects the economy to show medium-to-long term growth recovery.” 

Speaking about ABFRL’s growth during the past year, he said the fashion and retail company saw a strong growth recovery in revenues, which resulted in improved profitability over the previous year. “Several initiatives encompassing cost management, supply chain optimisation and smart procurement were taken up by the business teams that contributed to the sharp improvement in profitability,” he added.

Growth

During FY22, the company’s revenue stood at ₹8,136 crore, with a 55 per cent growth, compared to last year’s ₹5,249 crore. It recorded an EBIDTA margin of 14.8 per cent.

Birla said he is confident the company’s growth trajectory will continue. “We had projected a revenue of ₹21,000 crore for the year 2026 during our annual investor day held in March 2021. I am very confident that we will be able to surpass that target and set even higher milestones for the business going forward,” he said.

ABFRL is part of a leading Indian conglomerate, The Aditya Birla Group. It has a network of 3,487 stores across approximately 30,787 multi-brand outlets, with 6,381 point of sales in department stores across India as on June 2022.

The company’s foray into branded ethnic wear business includes brands such as Jaypore, Tasva & Marigold Lane. The company has strategic partnerships with Designers ‘Shantanu & Nikhil’, ‘Tarun Tahiliani’, ‘Sabyasachi’ and ‘House of Masaba’.

In FY22, your company also launched a premium ethnic wear brand, Tasva, in partnership with Tarun Tahiliani. “The brand has received a stellar response so far. 6 stores were opened in FY22, and the brand is expected to add around 70 stores in FY23, making it one of the fastest expansion stories in the premium ethnic space in the country,” he said.

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