Lux targets revenue growth of 12-15% in FY17

Makers of innerwear products, Lux Industries expects revenue to grow around 12 percent year-on-year (YoY) in FY16, along with a 7-8 percent increase in volumes, says Ajay Patodia, CFO of the company.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18, he laid out a growth guidance of 12-15 percent for fiscal year 2017 and said that the company is looking for inorganic growth and may foray into women’s wear.Below is the verbatim transcript of Ajay Patodia’s interview with Sonia Shenoy and Ekta Batra on CNBC-TV18. Ekta: First wanted to discuss how exactly your volume growth is panning out for this quarter, we were in a conversation with one of your peers yesterday where they mentioned around 12-13 percent is what they are envisaging. What is your value as well as volume growth looking like at this point? A: In our earlier discussion, I told you that we have a total growth of around 10-12 percent year-on-year (YoY) basis in FY16 and around 7-8 percent growth in volume and 4-5 percent in margin. Sonia: What is the estimate for FY17, would you be able to continue with this double digit growth? A: We expect around 12-15 percent growth we can achieve because our plant will also get operational by June 2016 so that will also add to our topline growth. Ekta: Would there be any sort of licensing agreements that you might be looking at in order to expand your retail presence as well as your entire market share? A: We are looking for various types of options like acquisition or introduction of new range of products in women wear so that our topline growth is increased. However, we expect in near course we can acquire any brand or anything to increase our topline growth. We are already opening store all over India for our product, exclusive outlet. Sonia: What is the market share you enjoy currently? A: Around 15-20 percent of organised sector, branded. Ekta: When you talk about expansion via licensing agreements or any sort of growth from that perspective, can you just give us a sense in terms of whether that could be in the next couple of months, three to six months that we could expect something tangible from the company? A: We are looking for option but it is very early to say about this. If we acquire any brand or product it will give result slowly, not immediately. (Copy edited by Sidhartha Shukla, interview transcribed by Priyanka Deshpande)