The adage for horse racing- “Don’t bet the horse, bet the jockey” couldn’t be more literally applied to a wealth creator on Dalal Street.

As the stock price of Page Industries hit Rs 36000 mark on August 28, it was a moment of reckoning as it marked the stock’s 100X journey or 9900 percent returns to the shareholders from the IPO issue price at Rs 360 per share.

While recent followers of the stock wouldn’t be surprised with these galloping moves on the stock, it’s interesting to know that the company’s IPO in February 2007 saw a tepid response. Applicants offered to buy the stock at the lower end of Rs 360-395 per share range. If that surprises you in hindsight, fathom this, the company listed on March 16, 2007 at Rs 341.9, 5 percent below the issue price of Rs 360 and witnessed continuous selling to close at Rs 282.1 the same day. It took it one whole month to get past the issue price of Rs 360.

However, moving beyond the stock price gains, the story and growth of Page Industries has been a remarkable one. Established in 1995, the company gets its name from first two letters of the name and surname of Parpati Genomal, the founders' mother. The firm is exclusive licensee of Jockey International Inc. for India, Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Maldives. Genomal group has been associated with Jockey International Inc for more than 50 years. They have been their sole licensee in Philippines for over a decade before entering other geographies. Recently, Jockey renewed its license with Page Industries for India until 2040.

Since listing, the company’s revenue has multiplied by a factor of 17 and their profitability has increased by 21 times. Without compromising on financial discipline, the company's return on equity(RoE) has been maintained over 50 percent for the last 10 years and the management expects the firm to continue it further.

While many argue that Page Industries is expensive at 68X FY20e earnings, many would say that the company’s brand strength, distribution leadership, historic financial growth and strong future growth plans justify these valuations.

What happens to the stock price is anyone’s guess, but as far as Page Industries' business mantra is concerned, as Ashok Genomal said in an interview with CNBC-TV18, “Our biggest competition is ourselves”.