Growth trajectory for Q4 looks good; India, Vietnam to benefit from China slowdown, says Gokaldas Exports

He also clarified that the entire impact of MEIS was taken in Q3 and so going forward would not need to absorb anything more.

When asked if they were able to pass on this MEIS impact on to the customers he said, “For whatever happens retrospectively, nothing can be done. Moreover, they already have booked orders till May and so for orders that have been booked, they cannot pass on the pricing but going forward they would try to pass on whatever possible to the consumers,” said Ganapathi.

In terms of making representation to the government about the incentive being withdrawn, he further mentioned, “As an industry, we have taken it up with the government, there is a dialogue and discussion going on. So remedial measures are being worked upon. We we have not completely given up on it, we will try our best to reason with the government and see if we can get it.”

Speaking about visibility on growth, he said, “We are almost halfway through into the fourth quarter and our growth trajectory is very good compared to the previous Q4, so we are buoyant. I am hopeful that we should be able to maintain our growth trajectory in the year ahead as well in FY21.”

Speaking on free-trade agreement (FTA), he said, “EU is just one market for us and for now the EU market is also not growing, it is pretty flat. When it comes to the rest of the world, we are on level-playing field, so we compete as intensely and we don’t have any competitive disadvantage. As far as EU is concerned, we tend to focus on those products which Bangladesh or Vietnam would not make - highly stylised fashion oriented garments, where we do not compete with them, so then the price or FTA doesn’t come into play."

"Everybody carves out and plays to their strength. The market is big enough for all of us to play and not get overwhelmed by Bangladesh or Vietnam. China is also slowing down. So, effectively in the long run, if it cannot be China, then India is standing up and being counted. Many of our customers are also looking at allocating portion of the China business to us in India as well, and they are looking at Vietnam too. So we are getting a reasonable share of that market.”

Within India as well, there is consolidation towards bigger players like us, which will help propel our growth, he said.