Raymond to launch mid-range apparel

Raymond Ltd is likely to come up with a lower-priced brand of apparels. The premium fabric and apparel company is looking at the possibilities of such a brand.

Not revealing much, Aniruddh Deshmukh, President, retail & FMCG, Raymond Ltd said, "We are looking at the possibility of introducing a new brand in the lower-priced fabric or apparel category. But we cannot reveal anything more than that. Things are still in their early stages/"

Presently, the Raymond Group manufactures and sells brands like Raymond, Color Plus, Park Avenue, Parx and others through Raymond Apparel Limited, its 100 per cent subsidiary. Of this, Raymond, through its worsted suiting fabric, has a marketshare of about Rs 450 crore of the overall Rs 39,000 crore worth apparel market in India.

According to Deshmukh, the overall apparel market is growing at 34 per cent while the premium apparel market is growing at 24 per cent. He added that Raymond forms around 10 per cent of the organised apparel sector which stands at Rs 4,200 crore.

The company recently announced its plans to expand in the country by doubling its The Raymond Store (TRS) and other Exclusive Brand Outlets (EBOs) like for Park Avenue, Color Plus and others from the present 430 to around 1,000 stores by 2010. In Gujarat, which forms 7-8 per cent of Raymond's Rs 2,500 crore revenue, the company will be doubling its TRS from 22 to 44 by 2009.

Of the 430 stores, 355 stores are of TRS of which 328 are in India while 27 are in overseas like West Asia and South Asia. TRS, said Deshmukh, will be pre-dominantly franchisee-driven stores, with nearly 90 per cent franchised.

"Even in terms of area, we want to expand our retail size from present 1 million sq ft to 2 million sq ft. We have also recently expanded our manufacturing capacity to 31 million metre per annum," added Deshmukh.