Monte Carlo CFO anticipates demand rebound in Q4

RK Sharma, CFO at branded apparel company Monte Carlo Fashions, said demand is slow but he expects it to rebound in the January-March quarter.

“This year we expect flat to single-digit growth compared to over 23% last year as retail demand was slow in H1FY24 in the Indian economy. It is a temporary phenomenon. It should rebound in Q4,” Sharma told ETCFO.

The CFO said the slow retail demand so far has not impacted the company’s store expansion plan, keeping his mid and long-term outlook for his industry bullish.

“We don’t see the demand hitting our store expansion trajectory as of now. We have plans to open 45-50 exclusive brand outlets this fiscal and we are on track. On the contrary, we have increased this target by another 10 stores to 60 stores next year (FY25),” the CFO stated.

Monte Carlo’s 90% of the stores are franchise-owned-franchise-operated (FOFO) which implies the company does not have to incur major capex here, while 10% of the stores are Company-Owned-Company-Operated, and each store in this model costs about Rs 40 lakh per showroom.

At the end of FY23 close, Monte Carlo’s total number of store outlets stood at 356.

In FY23, Monte Carlos' business grew by 22% over FY22 to approximately Rs 1,100 crore.