THE sun is already smiling bright on the summer fabric makers.

The mercury starts rising in April and by May women prefer to switch over to wearing cotton lawn to beat the heat.

In major cities the lawn fever starts as early as February. If you are in Pakistan in the spring there is no chance to miss the sight of huge, colour blasting billboards of models and popular actresses marketing summer collection of lawn fabric, a visiting Dubai-based businessman remarked.

Do households set aside budget for summer wear particularly for women? Most respondents reached over phone by this writer during an informal survey did not give a direct reply as they said the majority of women in this country still subsist on the bare minimum.

Normally, a Pakistani woman hardly owns a wardrobe to plan its change, but the growing urban middle-class with an increasing number of working women definitely impact summer fabric market. With the fashion dimension added, women of the elite class shop during summers to their hearts content, commented an analyst working in the marketing section of a textile company.

Summers here are long and harsh. Earlier, the ladies preferred fine cotton dress for comfort. Today, thanks to the enterprising textile manufacturers, designers and market strategists, it is fashionable to adorn lawn during warm months, commented a keen market observer.

Lawn has become a FMCG (fast moving consumer good). Yes, because of seasonal factor, the campaign of textile traders converges in the months of February/March, which amplify its impact, commented a senior executive of a major textile group.

Most players in textile economy agree, however, that aggressive marketing campaign by competing companies signifies the new found focus of the industry on the growing domestic market, the increasing size of spending classes and the growing sophistication of customers who are aware of new trends and strive hard to get maximum value for their money.

The weakening export demand in the Europe and US forced major textile players to have a closer look at the domestic market. Let textile tycoons wail as much as they want. To me they are doing well. A bleeding industry cannot afford the kind of presence that textile sector has in the domestic clothing market, an expert commented.

Of 650 listed companies about 250 are textiles. About 200 of these 250 companies have declared themselves sick. When you look at the rush in the market on fabric stores and numerous exhibitions all over the country, the sickness seems to be an outcome of creative accounting for shedding liabilities towards public exchequer and small shareholders, said an equities expert.

The kind of spending that goes into marketing of summer fabric, emerging trend of developing brands (Gul Ahmed, Al Karam, Lakhany, Sitara, Firdous, Five Star, Nisha, Dawood, Kayseria, Mausummery, etc.), huge success of fashion designers (Rizwan Beyg, HSY, Sana Safinaz, etc.), commercial exhibition in a social family event and opening of specialised theme stores by manufacturers make one wonders about the size of the lawn market in terms of value.

Many textile producers were reluctant to respond to the query. They said it is very big but stopped short of telling exactly how very big is the big.

On insistence they tossed figures ranging between one to thirty billion rupees for the size of the entire domestic cotton fabric market. It is hard to tell because beside big corporate players there is a big chunk of vendors with small units in Karachi but mostly in Punjab in the lawn market, said Amin Bandukhda, former president of SITE Association in Karachi.

Abid Omer of Al Karam Group was enthusiastic about the emerging trends that he felt were healthy. The traditional manufacturers of lawn hooked designers to collaborate to serve the textile market that is coming of age. We take our fine quality and mesh it with creativity of designers to offer best of both to our customers, he commented elaborating on the market trends.

Some manufacturers said the market will expand further during 2012 but the pace of growth may be less than what companies experienced last year. My sales grew by about 35 per cent in 2011. In 2012 we expect growth but not beyond 25 per cent. There are many players on the scene and rising inflation has taken its toll on disposable income of an average family, informed an executive of a major textile group in Karachi.

During the current season the rate of a lawn suit at the lower end has not increased significantly but on the higher end the hike in rate is steep. There is variety to serve all women customers. A cent per cent lawn suit of lowest quality is available for Rs350 400. However, if you have a taste for brands anything decent will cost you anything between Rs3000-8000 depending on the quality and accessories (lace, boarder, etc.) to go with it, a trader said.

Commenting on the sustainability of the trend, businessmen felt that the countrys population is huge and per capita consumption level is still too low. Our base is still too narrow if we keep the potential in view. I am not an economist but I can tell that Pakistan has all it takes to shine only if it manages stability and security, the enterprising people will take care of the rest, commented another market watcher.

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