Mumbai: As schools across the country get back to life with students coming back for physical classes, uniform manufacturers are witnessing a significant uptick in demand for school uniforms, reports the latest JD Mart Consumer Insights.
Demand for school uniforms on JD Mart, India’s latest B2B platform by Just Dial, saw a year-on-year (YOY) jump of 117 percent, signalling the return of happy days for the industry that has been struggling for survival for almost two years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic as schools went into an online mode.
The JD Mart Consumer Insights revealed that searches in Tier-1 cities were twice the number for Tier-2, but the demand growth rate in the latter was around 141 percent. Demand growth in Tier-1 cities also grew at a healthy 28 percent. The rise in demand growth rate has been accelerated by the fact that students have outgrown their uniforms during the last two years.
Commenting on consumer trends, which indicate a silver lining for uniform manufacturers, Just Dial CMO Prasun Kumar said: “As children return to schools after a long hiatus, we are witnessing a significant demand for school uniform on JD Mart. This indicates a silver lining for the uniform manufacturing industry which according to estimates was an Rs 18,000 crore-industry before the pandemic struck. But now, with almost 1.5 million schools coming back to life with the return of students, uniform manufacturers have something to cheer about.”
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Mumbai, which saw the strictest lockdown as it was the worst impacted owing to Covid, saw maximum demand among Tier-1 cities and a YOY growth of 40 percent. Delhi, also one of the worst impacted, was second in terms of demand with a growth rate of 24 percent, and Pune placed third with a growth rate of 7 percent. Among Tier-1 cities, Bengaluru saw the maximum demand growth rate of 58 percent.
The JD Mart Consumer Insights also shows that among Tier-2 towns and cities, Sholapur, the uniform manufacturing hub of the country, saw maximum searches followed by Coimbatore, Chandigarh, Patna, and Mysore as the top five cities with most of the demand. Of these cities, Chandigarh saw the maximum YOY growth of 108 percent.
T-shirt manufacturers also saw a YOY rise in demand of 7 percent. Tier-1 cities saw a demand rise of 13 percent while in Tier-2 it remained stable. The manufacturing hub of Ludhiana saw maximum demand in India while Delhi and Mumbai were second and third, respectively.
Indiablooms News Service
