(Reuters) – India’s Trident reported a decline in third-quarter profit on Friday, as inflationary pressures hindered demand for textiles during the festive season.
The textiles maker reported consolidated net profit of 797 million rupees ($9.24 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, down 27% from a year ago.
Trident, which supplies home textiles to major global retailers such as Walmart, Target, IKEA, and JC Penney, reported a 9% fall in revenue to 16.67 billion rupees.
Revenue fell across all four of Trident’s segments. Sales from its yarn segment, accounting for 41% of total revenue, fell 5%, while sales in the towel, bedsheets and paper and chemicals segments fell 10%, 13% and 17% respectively.
The fall in demand comes despite the third quarter coinciding with the country’s festive season, where retailers typically mark a boost in demand as consumers splurge on products.
Persistent inflationary pressures have been dampening textile sales, reducing consumer demand and discretionary spending, said analysts at Antique Stock Broking.
India’s retail inflation accelerated to 6.21% in October, and although the following two months showed a slowdown, the figure remained well above the central bank’s medium-term target of 4%.
The fall in revenue also outweighed expenses, which declined about 7.2% to 15.79 billion rupees, mainly due to lower raw material costs.
($1 = 86.2240 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Ashna Teresa Britto; Editing by Varun H K)
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