Ludhiana’s uniform traders see a ray of hope with schools reopening next week
Several dealers were forced to lay off their employees and close their shops due to inability to pay rent and salaries
Private schools deciding to reopen for board classes has come as a much-needed relief for school uniform dealers, who have been struggling with losses due to the closure of schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
With educational institutes remaining closed for the past seven months, dealers had reported zero sales of summer uniforms, leaving large stocks unsold. This pushed several of them in severe cash crunch with no funds to purchase the winter uniform stocks next.
Right before the schools were ordered closed due to the pandemic, traders had stocked their shops with school uniforms as the new academic session starts from April 1, which normally elicits huge demand for the summer collection by parents.
However, due to the unprecedented disruption in demand due to the Covid outbreak, uniform traders were left staring at huge losses, with monthly rentals and instalments also knocking at their door. This caused a lot of them to shut shop or remain closed for months.
“I was forced to keep the shop closed as there was no income since March and it was becoming difficult to pay the rent. I purchased the summer stock in March first week and expected to earn profits by the end of that month. But the lockdown imposed by the government shattered the hopes of shopkeepers and forced them to sit at home,” said Sunil Kumar, who runs a uniform shop near Clock Tower.
“I used to have seven employees, but had to lay off five of them due to losses for five months. I had never faced such a slowdown before in my 34 years in this business. I reopened the shop two months ago, and for the last 10 days, some customers have been turning up to purchase uniforms,” said Kulpreet Singh, owner of King’s Wear in Model Town.
Echoing Kulpreet’s views, Manjeet Singh, owner of Virdi Point on Char Khamba Road, who has also been in the trade for 35 years, said the uniform business will revive only if schools reopened completely.
“Earlier, I had 15 staff members, but due to the pandemic, the shop remained closed for several months. This forced me to trim down my staff strength to three, as it was difficult to pay the salaries,” he said.