India: survey suggests leather industry saw recovery in 2010
A survey of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Indian leather industry, conducted by IndiaMART Knowledge Services (IKS), revealed that 61.9% of respondents said the market for leather products had picked up in 2010 vis-a-vis 2009, while 19% replied that it had declined. Just over 19% of respondents reported no change.
According to the survey, overall sales growth was far better than export growth in 2010, compared to 2009. While 42.8% of respondents said their sales grew by more than 20% in 2010 compared to 2009, only 33.3% said their exports increased by more than 20% in 2010.
Similarly, 47.6% of respondents said their sales grew in the 0-20% range, while 38.1% reported that their export growth was 0-20%.
Customer sentiment also showed signs of improvement. A majority of the respondents 57.1% reported that they witnessed an average improvement in consumer sentiment in 2010 as against 2009, while 23.8% said consumer sentiment showed a negative trend, and only 19% said that the improvement surpassed their expectations.
The survey further revealed that 61.9% of respondents felt that the main challenge facing them was the liquidity crunch, while 33.3% felt that their main challenge was poor consumer response. Only 4.8% listed lack of infrastructure as their main challenge. A majority of those surveyed (57.1%) said that liquidity needs to be eased.
