The Federation of Hosiery Manufacturers’ Association of India (FOHMA), an apex body for the hosiery industry at its AGM on September 21 in Kolkata launched website www.fohma.in and the first ever ‘Fohma Hosiery Cost Index’ (HOSEX). The AGM also elected its office bearers for year 2015-16 where K.B. Agrwala of Rupa & Co was re-elected president of the association for the period.
Speaking on the occasion, Agrawala said launching of the Fohma Hosiery Cost Index (HOSEX) is a step towards making the industry more aware of its costing and profitability. This is a unique initianve of the association and over time the same shall became reference point for the total hosiery and knitwear industry, he said. FOHMA would work on more such innovative to ensure growth and development of the industry.
FOHMA vice president (central), Sanjay K. Jain of TT Ltd., who has created the Index hoped that the association with proper support from industry players will establish a universally accepted Index which will be a guiding tool for both buyers and sellers. This will be the first cost index for any textile industry segment in the country which will enable companies to benchmark their pricing to a systematic cost plus scenario and ensure the same is accepted by the market. Index highlights the average movement in costing for a representative basket of hosiery goods over a period of time. However, specific products may have gone up more or less depending on its specifications, the Index just gives a broad idea for the industry as a whole. Its relevance is more in giving an idea of the direction of movement of costing rather than absolute movement.
The industry is slowly graduating from a fragmented market scenario to a more organised one, where more and more large buyers are emerging in the shape of organised retailers, institutional players and ecommerce giants. They have much more bargaining power and can squeeze companies/brands in an inflationary situation. India is an inflation prone country due to its structure and phased process of development. In such a scenario, it gets difficult for brands and companies to convince buyers for a price hike. On the other side it will also provide direction to the buyers and help them in ensuring a correct pricing for them. This index is expected to create a win –win and balanced scenario for both buyers & sellers.
Jain also said that the index would be updated at the start of every quarter i.e. January 1 and so on. The base year has been taken as January 1, 2010 as this period was relatively stable and was between two highly volatile periods (2008-9 & 2011-12). It will be called as HOSEX which covers various products being manufactured in major hosiery centers like Tirupur, Kolkata and Delhi. Details of the index are available at www.fohma.in and for further clarifications FOHMA can be contacted, Jain added.
