Ethnic retail brand Fabindia narrowed its losses to Rs 39 crore for FY22 from Rs 114 crore reported in the year-ago period with a one-third increase in revenue, significantly wiping out the adverse impact of the pandemic on sales.

The company posted revenue of Rs 1,392 crore, a rise of 31% during the year over Rs 1,060 crore in FY21, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

“Following relaxation in Covid pandemic-related restrictions starting June 2021, improved customer sentiment further aided by the festive season and expansion of the retail store portfolio, the trajectory of revenue continued to improve month-on-month till year-end,” the company said.

FabIndia has received approval from the markets regulator for its Rs 4,000 crore initial public offering. According to its draft red-herring prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange of Board India earlier this year, the company permanently closed 22 stores in FY21 due to a decline in footfall.

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“We began reopening our stores and FabCafes through a phased approach commencing in June 2020 and successfully completed the reopening process over the course of several months, as local conditions and regulations permitted…,” company said.

A number of organised players have started strengthening the ethnic wear category, which was mostly unorganised thus far. Even in the online space, brands have been expanding the ethnic wear category. Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail has invested in Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi and Shantanu & Nikhil, while announcing a foray into premium ethnic wear brands Marigold Lane and Tasva. In the online space, Mensa Brands, an accelerator of digital brands, has acquired Karagiri, Priyaasi, Ishin and Anubhutee, among others, and is building a tech-driven ethnic cluster.

FabIndia, too, is growing its online presence and the company’s revenues through online sales — its own website, app and third party websites — amounted to Rs 93 crore on a standalone basis during FY21. This represented 16% of its total revenue from sales compared to nearly Rs 46 crore during FY19.

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The ethnic apparel market in India was estimated at Rs 141.8 crore for FY20. The branded ethnic apparel category is expected to grow at a higher rate of approximately 15.8% per annum between FY 22 and FY26 driven by increasing share of the branded segment in the overall ethnic apparel market. Similarly, the organic food and wellness market in India was estimated at Rs 1,430 crore in FY20 and is expected to grow at a rate of approximately 18.1% per annum to reach Rs 3,870 crore by FY26, according to an EY report.