Local retail pivot helps Gul Ahmed surge The companies’ sales jumped 60% to Rs53 billion to Rs86 billion in 2021
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f you had read the pages of this magazine just a few years ago, you would have noted a somewhat skeptical approach to Gul Ahmed. The textile mill with the local retail footprint was struggling to find ground, having a patchy year in 2012, and stagnant growth between 2013 and 2017. Then, in 2020, the year of Covdi-19, it experienced a drop in sales, and its first loss in net income since 2012. Which makes the financial results for the year 2021 all the more surprising. The companies’ sales jumped 60% to Rs53 billion to Rs86 billion, while the company’s loss of
TEXTILES
Rs479 million went straight to a profit of Rs5 billion - the highest net income the company has ever recorded. Even Gul Ahmed itself seems surprised. As its annual report notes, all of this change happened despite a record year of, “unpredictable and strange movements in rupee versus dollar parity, continued increase in raw material prices, increase in utility prices, challenges in logistic front, enhanced supply chain cost, and a continuously growing inflation.” You know, just the usual problems when it comes to doing business in Pakistan. But actually that very bit - that the textile mill has switched its focus somewhat just from pure exports to local retail in Pakistan - is
what has helped Gul Ahmed, and paid off in the long run. To understand how, first, some history. Gul Ahmed as a group started in the early 1900s trading in textiles. It was in 1953 that the company entered manufacturing with Gul Ahmed Textile Mills. It was listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange in 1955. Today, the plant has more than 130,000 spindles, with 300 weaving machines and yarn dyeing, processing and stitching units. Its four main business segments are spinning, weaving, retail, and distribution & processing for home textile and apparel. Subsidiary companies of Gul Ahmed include GTM USA Corporation, Gul Ahmed
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