Indiantelevision.com Team

(9 February 2008 7:10 pm)

BANGALORE: Textile and apparel major Raymond announced that it plans to grow its retail network of the Raymond Shop (TRS) in India from the current 430 to 950 by 2010. The company also plans to almost double its retail outlets from the existing 27 to 50 in Karnataka. Internationally, the company plans to increase its number of outlets by 20. At present, it has 29 outlets in the Middle East and South Asia.

Raymond president of retail and FMCG Aniruddha Deshmukh says that with the increase in income generation in smaller towns in India, the propensity to spend has been increasing in these places. The company already has 92 outlets in class IV (population between 100,000 and 500,000) and class V (population between 50,000 and 100,000), and each of these outlets has been clocking annual sales of around Rs 10 million to Rs 11 million.

Most of the TRS outlets are franchisees. Raymond has slowed down on opening company-owned stores since 2006. It now has around 55 company-owned TRS outlets. For the smaller towns, the company has scaled down the cost of furniture to around Rs 1,500 per square feet from the approximately Rs 2,500 per square feet that a franchisee would have to spend in metro cities. TRS outlets in smaller towns would have between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet of air-conditioned retail space as opposed to the larger formats in metro cities.

TRS is positioned as an exclusive premium retail store that offers complete wardrobe solutions for men through brands like Raymond, Park Avenue, Parx, Manzoni, ColorPlus. Raymond has recently launched a kidswear brand Zapp!, a popular price brand Notting Hill, women’s wear under Park Avenue and ColorPlus, and an Italian brand Gas. Besides TRS, Raymond also has exclusive Park Avenue, ColorPlus and Parx outlets.

Through its subsidiary JK Helene Curtis, the company has a range of personal care product brands including Premium, Park Avenue and Tru-tone brands. JK Ansell, a 50:50 joint venture between the Raymond group and Ansell International has brands such as KamaSutra.

The Raymond group spends around Rs 700 million annually towards promotional and media expenses, of which around Rs 400 million are towards mass media communications. For promotion of the Park Avenue and ColorPlus brands, the company spends another Rs 300 million every year, according to Deshmukh. RK Swamy, Dentsu and Starcom are some of the ad agencies that handle various Raymond and associated brands.