Bengaluru, May 26 -- Value fashion retailers across the country are likely to face margin pressure in the upcoming quarters as rising crude oil prices are driving up the cost of polyester and other fabrics. Executives at V-Mart Retail Ltd, Vishal Mega Mart Ltd, and Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd (KKCL) said crude oil-linked inflation has begun to push up yarn and sourcing costs across apparel and general merchandise categories, with the full impact expected to play out over the next few months. Value fashion retailers face a double whammy: their heavy reliance on polyester and synthetic blends exposes them to crude-linked inflation, while their price-sensitive customer base leaves little room to pass on rising costs without hurting demand. Apparel contributes about 22.8% of the overall revenue of the country's largest retailer, DMart, in FY26. Rising polyester and fabric prices could also weigh on this share, which has been declining since FY20. "We see almost 60% to 70% consumption of polyester yarn or poly-based product lines, which have or will get impacted," said Lalit Agarwal during the company's March-quarter earnings call. Agarwal said that yarn prices had already risen sharply in recent weeks. "There is a rise of almost 10% to 15% in the yarn prices, which effectively converts to almost 5% to 7% in the apparel prices," he said. "Cost increases are at multiple points. One, of course, is raw material, which is not only fabric, but also polyester, buttons, thread, packaging, all of that," said Devangshu Dutta, founder of Third Eyesight, a consulting firm. "Because with value, you can't pass on price hikes so readily to consumers." Lower- and middle-income consumers were under financial stress from broader inflationary pressures, "so, they will not be able to absorb price hikes as easily as well", he said, Ebitda margins in Q4FY26 were 10.9% for V-Mart, 13.6% for Vishal Mega Mart and 19.1% for Kewal Kiran Clothing. Gunender Kapur, CEO, Vishal Mega Mart, during the firm's March-quarter earnings call, said the inflationary impact started becoming visible at the end of April and could intensify in coming months....