Textile and garment traders do brisk business from Christmas to Sankranti in Visakhapatnam district

The Sankranti festival is a major sales period for the textile and garment industry in Visakhapatnam, with businesses recovering from COVID-19 losses.

The business of seasonal festivals which started with Christmas celebrations in December last year ended with Sankranti. After this, sales will literally dry up till entry of the summer and the next festival Ugadi.

According to retail industry sources, the harvest festival is one of the biggest festivals for the textile and garment industry, as most sales take place between Christmas and Sankranti festivals. Around 60 to 70% of the entire year’s festival sales come during Sankranti, retail industry sources said. There are around 400 registered garment showrooms and hundreds of unregistered road-side shops under GVMC.

Almost all members of the family buy clothes during the festival and every shop expects good business during this period.

As sales plummeted during the COVID-19 period, traders have started to recover from financial losses from 2022 onwards. By this Sankranti 2024, their business is almost back to normal and traders also changed different style of functioning with the lessons learnt during the pandemic.

“I have learnt from COVID-19 to employ fewer number of workers and less stock to avoid losses,” said K.M. Naidu of Fashions Paradise at Dabagardens.

Rapid expansion of shops even in villages in the last few months, especially after the division of districts into Anakapalli, Alluri Sitama Raju-Paderu and Visakhapatnam, is one reason for the changes in the style of functioning.

Speaking to The Hindu, CMR Shopping Mall owner Mavuri Venkata Ramana said, “Earlier, people from villages used to come to the city to buy clothes or jewellery during the festive season. Now, branches have opened even in semi-urban areas. When business stores are available at the doorstep of customers, why do they come to the city to buy goods. This is one of the main reasons for the changes in the trading style of almost every trader including myself. However, we have seen satisfactory business during this Sankranti period in the last 10 days till Saturday night.”