Aditya Birla Lifestyle bets on festive demand

MUMBAI: Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands is banking on the festive season to revive apparel demand even as it has raised prices by about 6% to offset higher costs, testing consumers' willingness to spend amid signs of moderating sales growth.

The company, which owns brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England, reported flat like-for-like sales growth in September, against 5.3% for the second quarter of FY27. The slowdown comes just as the full impact of price increases begins to flow through in the December quarter, making consumer acceptance and discounting critical to sustaining growth.

"We will have to see how consumers respond to that and to be able to see how much, because in our business pricing is one part, the second part is how much of discounts you give," managing director Ashish Dikshit told investors on Monday.


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While the company has taken about a 6% hike for the season to ease higher input costs, it has not passed on the entire increase, Dikshit said. It has also worked with vendor partners to minimise cost pressures.

The full impact of the price increases will be visible in the December quarter, as the September quarter included a mix of old and new inventory, with the older merchandise not carrying the higher prices. Demand was uneven across categories in the September quarter, with casual wear and athleisure accounting for much of the growth, while wedding-related purchases remained subdued.

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"H1, especially Q2, had a lot of casual lines growing because there was very little wedding demand in Q2," Dikshit said. "So, most of the growth is actually coming from casual lines, athleisure, et cetera."

The company expects wedding-led categories, including ethnic wear, to perform better in the current quarter as the festive and wedding season gathers pace. Like-for-like growth at the company's lifestyle brands stood at 5.3% in the September quarter, compared with 6.6% in the first half. September recorded zero growth, although Dikshit attributed this largely to the shift in the festive calendar.