Apex footwear sales and profits down amid pandemic 

Footwear manufacturer and exporter Apex Footwear Limited experienced a marked fall in revenue and profits in the first three quarters of the current financial year, as exports and local sales decreased due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the first nine months of 2020-2021, the company's sales fell by 15% and profits declined by 35% compared to the same period a year ago. And in the third quarter, both revenue and profits of the company fell by 13%.

Industry sources said the country's footwear sector is now in the doldrums as sales have gone down because of the pandemic.

Like Apex, all its peer companies engaged in manufacturing footwear are undergoing the same crisis.

In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, Apex sales revenue went down 25.29% to Tk1181.01 crore, from Tk1580.88 crore in the previous year.

In this fiscal year, its export revenues fell 28.91% and local sales fell 21.39%.

In the first nine months of this fiscal, Apex footwear's net revenue stood at Tk933.51 crore, down from Tk1,077.09 crore in the same period last year.

Its net profit decreased to Tk5.26 crore from Tk7.13 crore in the same time last year, while earnings per share (EPS) stood at Tk4.68, which was Tk6.34 in the previous year.

In the January-March period of this year, the company's net revenue decreased by 13% to Tk283.1 crore from Tk319.03 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

In this quarter, its net profit stood at Tk1.14 crore and EPS Tk1.02, which was Tk1.3 crore and Tk1.16 respectively, a year ago.

The company was listed on the stock exchanges in 1993 and is now placed in the "A" category.

As of March this year, of total company shares, sponsors and directors held 31.92%, institutional investors 38.17%, foreign investors 0.10% and general investors held 29.81%.