Jockey, the premium innerwear brand, has expanded considerably since its inception in India. Behind its impressive growth is Pius Thomas, the chief financial officer of Page Industries, the manufacturer and distributor of Jockey in the country. Under his leadership, the company’s sales and profits have grown at a swift pace in the past couple of years even as the economic slowdown has adversely impacted peers.
The company today has 223 exclusive Jockey outlets, and its products are available in 726 large format stores and 35,000 retail outlets across 1,200 cities and towns in the country. It also has licenses for manufacturing and distributing Jockey in the Middle East, Sri Lanka and Nepal. In the UAE, for instance, it has already opened four exclusive stores and has presence in 40 other multi-brand outlets.
Page Industries, the exclusive licensee of Jockey, posted 26 per cent growth in sales to Rs 863.46 crore in 2012-13. Net profit also jumped by a fourth to Rs 112.53 crore. The pace accelerated in 2013/14, with sales surging 36 per cent to Rs 1,173 crore and net profit growing 37 per cent to Rs 154 crore.
The company listed on the bourses in 2007 at a share price of Rs 360 and now has a market cap of around Rs 8,600 crore. Its shares are currently trading above Rs 7,700.
Page Industries has grown by leaps and bounds since 1994, when Sundar Genomal, whose family owned the Jockey franchise in the Philippines for over three decades, moved to lay the company’s foundation in Bangalore with a franchise license for 50 years.
The company operates in the mid- and premium-category segment and commands around a third of the total innerwear market in India.
Thomas has been an executive director of finance at Page Industries since 13 September 2012 and serves as its chief financial officer presently. He has three decades of experience in finance, accounting, taxation, costing, textiles and general administration and served the company in various capacities from a general manager, finance to a compliance officer since September 2008. He joined Page Industries as senior manager for finance and accounts in November 1995.
Thomas also holds an MBA degree from the University of Texas, US.
Another challenge for Page Industries is remaining cost competitive, especially since its business is labour intensive (the company employs 16,200 people).
