Indian Textile Journal Presents India’s Top 50 Textile Companies in 2024

Despite challenging circumstances in 2023-24, some textile firms managed to grow showing their mettle in a difficult market environment. The Indian Textile Journal (ITJ) brings to you the top performers in the Indian textile industry in FY24 after evaluating over 200 companies.

The textiles & apparel (T&A) industry plays a crucial role in the growth of Indian economy. The domestic T&A industry contributes about 2.3 per cent to the country’s GDP, 13 per cent to industrial production, and 12 per cent to exports. The T&A industry is India’s second-largest employer after agriculture, providing direct employment to 45 million people and 100 million people in the allied sector. With a 4 per cent share, India is the world’s sixth largest exporter of textiles and apparel, highlighting its substantial role in the international market. The Indian textile sector is diverse and extensive, with the country being the second-largest producer of cotton and jute globally and the second-largest producer of silk. Remarkably, India accounts for 95 per cent of the world’s hand-woven fabric.

According to Invest India, the domestic textile market was valued at around $ 165 billion in 2022, including $ 125 billion from domestic sales and $ 40 billion from exports. Projections indicate that the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 per cent to reach $ 350 billion by 2030. To support the industry’s growth, the Indian government has taken many initiatives such as PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (MITRA) parks and the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme with an allocation of Rs 106.83 billion.

Driving in a rough whether

Fiscal 2023-24 saw many downs, then ups with exports plummeting as developed countries (especially Europe) continued to struggle. The on-going geopolitical tensions across the world (such as Russia-Ukraine War, Israel-Hamas conflict, etc) and uncertainty in the supply chains, severely affected the demand for India’s textiles & apparel in 2023-24. Though domestic demand remained steady, slowdown in the some of the important export destinations affected the performances of Indian T&A companies in 2023-24. In 2023-24, India’s textiles & apparel (T&A) exports declined by 3 per cent to $ 34.4 billion compared to previous fiscal year. FY24 exports saw a significant drop of 16.3 per cent compared to FY22’s, when the country recorded its highest ever T&A exports worth $ 41 billion.

The segment encompassing cotton yarn, fabrics, made-ups, and handloom products witnessed a notable YoY increase in exports by $ 740 million in 2023-24 over FY23, driven by a surge in cotton yarn exports. On the other hand, the readymade garments segment, which accounts for 42 per cent of combined textile exports, recorded 10 per cent decrease in exports in FY24 compared to the previous year primarily due to the reduction in demand for value-added garments in the US and Europe. For example, Tiruppur (Tamil Nadu), India’s leading knitwear hub, witnessed 25 per cent decline in exports from $ 4 billion in FY22 to $3 billion in FY24.

According to Crisil, consistent improvement in domestic demand, gradual recovery in exports, and lower cotton prices are expected to aid growth of Indian textile industry in the calendar year 2024. The first quarter (Q1) of FY25 showed some upward movement in the exports of apparel, largely due to the slightly improved sentiments in the US economy as well as the shift desired by buyers from China and Bangladesh. India’s T&A exports increased 4.15 per cent to $ 8.78 billion in Q1 FY25 compared to $ 8.43 billion in the same period last year. However, experts says the growth in Q1 FY25 is minimal and on a low base.

In the backdrop of this highly volatile marketplace, we, at The Indian Textile Journal (ITJ), are trying to find out winners in the Indian T&A sector – through its yearly exercise of “Top 50 Indian Textile Companies” feature – by adopting a system-oriented and process-based approach. Let’s first understand the process of selecting the winners.

The process

For the last two years, the textile sector has been facing issues like slow sales growth, margins pressure and increasing debt burden because of the low demand and uncertain market condition. No wonder considering all such factors even the investors were supposed to give a cold shoulder to such companies. Considering these challenges, this year, we are ranking companies (for determining the winners) based on their sales and profit growth performance only. While sales figures are important as they reflect how the demand for products or services is moving, net profit clearly shows how much is left for shareholders.

For ranking purpose last three years’ (FY24, FY23 and FY22) results were taken into account to determine growth for two periods (from FY22 to FY23 and from FY23 to FY24). Both parameters, i.e. sales and net profit, were given equal weightage (50 per cent), but higher weightage was given to the recent performance (i.e for the period from FY23 to FY24). Composite scores were created by multiplying the weightage with the ranks both for sales revenues and net profit. The sum of the composite scores was then aggregated in a descending order with the least scores reflecting the highest rankers. Post this ranking procedure, top performers from the Indian T&A industry were shortlisted.

Further to make a right comparison, we have bifurcated the companies into two groups based on sales revenues in 2023-24. Companies who recorded revenues of more than Rs 500 crore in 2023-24 were placed in the first group (referred to as “Large Category”), while firms with less than Rs 500 crore were bucketed in the second group (the “Small Category”). Here, we are showcasing only Top 25 Textile Companies from each group.

Many would argue that a few of the companies have not shown growth in sales or net profit still is making it to the top list. But as we mentioned it is a weighted ranking and hence if the company has not shown growth in selected parameters (or the period), it is ranked lowest in it.

We have made a few adjustments, like companies that have not yet announced the March 2024 quarter results have not been considered. Apart from this, a few organisations chose not to participate in this process and hence do not figure in the list. A few of the companies have been removed with human intervention (as few diversified groups had more income from realty or other non-core segments). Considering all the factors, here we provide a list of top 50 textile companies in India by taking into account almost all aspects that needed to be considered.

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Table 1: Top 25 Textile Companies (Category: Large) in India having sales of above Rs 500 crore in FY24

Disclaimer: In “Large Category”, 56 “qualified companies” were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the “Large Category”.

Table 2: Top 25 Textile Companies (Category: Small) in India having sales of less than Rs 500 crore in FY24

Disclaimer – In “Small Category”, 40 “qualified companies” were analysed and ranked on the parameters (mentioned above). This list shows only the Top 25 Companies in the “Small Category”.