Raymond expects apparel, fabric business to grow in five years

The company plans to expand it's retail presence with more stores, renovates existing outlets

Raymond Ltd is expecting its revenue from branded apparel business to grow four fold from the current over Rs 1,000 crore and the fabrics business to double from around Rs 3,000 crore in five years. The company is expanding its presence to new regions and launching new products using technology, said Mohit Dhanjal, director-retail, Raymond Ltd.

Speaking to reporters in the sidelines of the launch of its social initiative Look Good, Do Good, under which the company offers free stiching of trousers to those who bring old trousers, Dhanjal said: "We want to double our growth in fabric, we want to grow apparel business almost four times in the next five years. All our apparel brands put together will be around Rs 1,000 crore now. Fabric business is around Rs 3,000 crore, now."

The growth would come from its new stores and renovated stores across the country, along with innovation in fabrics using technology. At present around 65 per cent of its business is from fabrics while around 35 per cent are from branded apparels.

The company, which opened around 70 stores last year, is looking at opening around 100 stores this year and plans to explore new markets in the tier 4 and 5 towns in the country. It has around 715 Raymond Stores, of which around 660 are through franchisees. Most of the expansions would be through franchisees. It also has a reach to 17,000 multi brand outlets. It currently has presence in 380 cities in the country.

Besides, the company is also renovating the existing stores, in order to improve the revenue. Plans are to renovate a total of 5 lakh square feet, of which around three lakh square feet has been renovated already and the rest would be renovated this year, and the renovated outlets will result in around four fold increase in reneue.

"If our normal stores last year grew 8 per cent, our renovated stores will grow 24 per cent. We are also opening more multi brand outlets. We are innovating in fabrics, which will attract more customers," he said, while commenting on the plans to achieve the target.

Raymond has recently announced its plans to set up a manufacturing facility in a 500 acre land in Amravati, Mahrashtra, which will start manufacturing by next March. This facility would support the expected growth in terms of both fabric and branded apparel. The company is also working on an omni channel model, which would combine both its online and retail presence, said Dhanjal.