Only 32% of Indians love denim

India is one of the largest producers of denim, with manufacturing capacity of 1.2 billion metres, but only 32% of Indians love or enjoy wearing denim, which is the least among the six denim hubs of the world. This was revealed by J Berrye Worsham, president and CEO of US-based Cotton Inc at the two-day global summit on denims and jeans, ‘Denims: A Democracy in Fashion’ which began at IIM Ahmedabad on Friday.

As many as 71% of people in Europe and Latin America love to wear denim, followed by 70% in the US, 58% in China and 57% in Japan. Worsham gave these details from the ‘Consumer and Retail Insights’ study, conducted by Cotton Inc.

In his keynote address on ‘Markets and Trends in Denims’, Worsham said that the growth of denim in US has slowed down but China, India and Latin America are likely to see tremendous growth. He also said that close to 1.9 billion units of denim jeans were sold in the world in 2015 and by 2021 the yearly sales of jeans will cross 2 billion units.

S N Modani of Sangam Group said that per capita consumption of denim in India is 0.3 pairs, which is much lower than that of China (2 pairs) and the US (8 pairs). CEO of Arvind Ltd, Aamir Akhtar, however cautioned denim manufacturers saying they cannot get into a comfort zone as the consumer is not going to stay with denims forever.

Dr Pankaj Chandra, former director, IIM Bangalore said, “The textile industry structure must be disrupted by new technology and skills. The textile and apparel sector has seen the fewest startups in the last three years among the five major sectors in the country that provide the maximum employment.” Chandra further put a question to manufacturers, “Do you think the textile sector can perform without its small players experimenting?”

Akhtar further said, “China is losing its sheen and countries including India have got the opportunity to fill that gap in exports. In India, according to present capacity utilization, over 800 million metres per annum (mmpa) of denim is produced. Out of this 550 mmpa goes into domestic consumption while 250 mmpa is exported. The denims industry is growing at a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) of 13%-15%.”