Bengaluru: Value fashion retailers across the country are likely to face margin pressure in the upcoming quarters as rising crude oil prices are driving up the cost of polyester and other fabrics.
Executives at V-Mart Retail Ltd, Vishal Mega Mart Ltd, and Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd (KKCL) said crude oil-linked inflation has begun to push up yarn and sourcing costs across apparel and general merchandise categories, with the full impact expected to play out over the next few months.
Value fashion retailers face a double whammy: their heavy reliance on polyester and synthetic blends exposes them to crude-linked inflation, while their price-sensitive customer base leaves little room to pass on rising costs without hurting demand.
Apparel contributes about 22.8% of the overall revenue of the country’s largest retailer, DMart, in FY26. Rising polyester and fabric prices could also weigh on this share, which has been declining since FY20.
“We see almost 60% to 70% consumption of polyester yarn or poly-based product lines, which have or will get impacted,” said Lalit Agarwal during the company’s March-quarter earnings call.
Agarwal said that yarn prices had already risen sharply in recent weeks. “There is a rise of almost 10% to 15% in the yarn prices, which effectively converts to almost 5% to 7% in the apparel prices,” he said.
“Cost increases are at multiple points. One, of course, is raw material, which is not only fabric, but also polyester, buttons, thread, packaging, all of that,” Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm, said. “Because with value, you cannot really pass on the price hikes so readily to the consumer.”
Dutta said that lower- and middle-income consumers were already under financial stress from broader inflationary pressures, “so, they will not be able to absorb price hikes as easily as well”.
Ebitda margins in Q4FY26 are 10.9% for V-Mart Retail, 13.6% for Vishal Mega Mart and 19.1% for Kewal Kiran Clothing.
Double whammy for value segment
Gunender Kapur, CEO of Vishal Mega Mart, during the company’s March-quarter earnings call, said the inflationary impact had started becoming visible towards the end of April and would likely intensify in the coming months.
Despite rising input costs, retailers said they are avoiding broad-based price hikes on entry-level products amid fragile demand conditions in the value segment.
Entry-level products for these retailers range from ₹199 to ₹399, with some going up to ₹1,500.
“We would never tinker with the opening price points and the lower price points in these difficult times, because those are the customers who are the most vulnerable in inflationary situations,” Kapur said.
Hemant Jain, CEO of KKCL, said the company was willing to absorb part of the pressure on profitability to protect revenues and market share.
Jain also said the company had not yet implemented price hikes despite the inflationary environment.
To cushion the impact, companies said they are increasingly relying on cost optimisation, fabric innovation, premium fashion products and deeper expansion into smaller towns to sustain growth.
V-Mart said it was attempting to offset part of the inflation through alternative fabric usage, sourcing efficiencies and tighter inventory planning.
The retailer has also blocked orders in advance and is utilising existing yarn and fabric inventories available with vendors to soften the immediate impact of rising prices.
Vishal Mega Mart’s Kapur said it has revived cost-saving measures from the post-Ukraine cotton inflation cycle, including replacing cartons with gunny bags, removing polybags from some apparel categories, and shipping footwear without outer cartons.
The retailer has also increased the use of computer-aided design systems to reduce fabric waste during cutting.
Premium products, private labels offer buffer
These value retailers are also increasingly depending on premium and higher-fashion assortments, where consumers are relatively less price sensitive, to absorb selective price increases while keeping entry-level products affordable.
Kapur said Vishal Mega Mart’s large private-label portfolio, which contributes over 74% of its revenue, gives it greater flexibility to manage pricing pressure while maintaining discounts against national brands.
KKCL, on the other hand, said it would absorb part of the inflationary impact rather than immediately pass on higher costs to consumers.
These retailers are also increasingly leaning on expansion into smaller towns and deeper markets to drive incremental growth as discretionary spending in larger urban centres remains uneven.
Value fashion retailers have underperformed the broader market amid growing concerns over rising input costs and margin pressure. Shares of V-Mart Retail, V2 Retail Ltd, Vishal Mega Mart and Kewal Kiran Clothing have fallen between 4% and 11% on a year-to-date basis, while the benchmark BSE rose 61% during the same period.