The sharp slide in the bottomline is despite a near 85 per cent jump in domestic sales of garment division. The garment division's domestic sales for the period under review stood at Rs 35.03 crore (Rs 19 crore). The exports of the division stood at Rs 1.56 crore (Rs 1 crore). The KG Denim board met here on Thursday to consider the audited results.

The Coimbatore-based company achieved net sales of Rs 149.97 crore for 1998-99 against Rs 143.60 crore clocked during the previous fiscal.

Domestic sales of the fabric division was lower at Rs 64.63 crore (Rs 70 crore) and exports stood at Rs 44.98 crore (Rs 49 crore). The company's total expenditure shot up to Rs 130.78 crore (Rs 114.80 crore) and interest outgo was higher by 20 per cent to Rs 20.28 crore (Rs 16.85 crore).

Moreover,`extra-ordinary items' (comprising mainly ad spend) shot up to Rs 5.81 crore from the previous fiscal's Rs 2.31 crore. The company made depreciation provision of Rs 4.65 crore (Rs 4.28 crore).

KGDL is all set to open exclusive showrooms to market its top-end Trevi jeans in four key cities of south. Trevi brand T-shirts, twill shirts and accessories would be sold at these outlets. Trigger, which took off in mid-1995, is expected to give further push to the garment division's sales for the current fiscal. Senior officials expect the division to clock Rs 80-crore sales in 1999-2000.