New Ethiopian and Amaravati plants to fuel future growth
Raymond Ltd. is indeed passing through an exciting growth phase. The company has unleashed a series of initiatives which would strengthen its business globally and in the domestic market. In order to be globally price-competitive for the export market, Raymond established a garmenting plant in Ethiopia as a strategic move to ensure duty-free access to key export markets such as the US and Europe. This is an important aspect of an integrated strategy. It will prove to be a catalyst for a new wave of growth for the company.
In a bid to augment growth of linen as a category, the Raymond Group inaugurated its manufacturing facility at Amravati in Maharashtra inspired by the ‘Make in India’ initiative. This facility will give the much-needed boost for linen manufacturing in the country and help it emerge as a preferred provider of linen in global markets.
Raymond reported growth in revenue from operations of 6.71% over the previous year. At stand-alone level, revenue from operations stood at Rs. 3,011.56 crores compared with Rs. 2,822.18 crores in the previous year. The consolidated revenue from operations for FY 2018 was Rs. 5,906.41 crores (previous year: Rs. 5,391.32 crores), registering a growth of 9.55%.
Mr. Gautam Hari Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director, said: “At Raymond, we are at the cusp of transformation today. As we continue to shape our future and build sustainable competitive advantage through our products, brand, retail and enabling platforms, it is imperative that we embrace customer centricity which is now at the heart of Raymond Reimagined”.
“Every journey creates milestones reminiscent of the fact that there is steady progression towards attaining the vision for the future. Having embarked on the ‘Raymond Reimagined’ journey last year, we have made steady progress that has exemplified our unwavering commitment towards sustainable value creation and to achieve the remarkable dream of transforming Raymond into a new-age customer-centric and future-ready organisation. Our intrinsic passion about creating highest quality innovative offerings to meet the rising expectations of our consumers remains the force propelling us to scale new levels of success”, he added.
The year 2017 was a momentous one as the Indian economy embraced the biggest economic reform of GST within a year of demonetisation. This move towards ‘One nation, One market, One tax’ will provide a big boost towards economic inclusion of a largely unorganised textile sector.
Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, poised to record a healthy growth rate of 7% on the back of consumption and increased public spending. There are thousands of thriving markets beyond the urban metros that uphold the power to fuel the nation’s economic engine. This growth will get accelerated with a slew of ecosystem enablers.
Make in India, Skill India and Start-up India
Mr. Singhania said: “Having pledged to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, it is our endeavour to contribute to the manufacturing-led job intensive growth of our nation. Reaffirming our commitment, Raymond commissioned a state-of-the-art linen manufacturing unit in Amravati in December 2017, within a record span of 18 months of signing the MoU. In the next phase, we plan to set up a world-class educational institution and an affordable housing facility in the vicinity of the Amravati plant, thereby providing a stable foundation for sustainable development and prosperity of the Vidarbha region in Maharashtra”.
In line with its global ambitions to emerge as a leading manufacturer of suits, Raymond commissioned a garmenting facility in Hawassa, Ethiopia. This facility commissioned in June 2017, will provide duty-free access to its products in the US and Europe over the next decade, in addition to providing the company with an unprecedented cost competitiveness in global markets.
Mr. Sanjay Behl, CEO – Lifestyle Business, Raymond, says: “The era of exponential change is upon us when neither size nor reputation nor even the current sales guarantee our existence tomorrow. Intrinsic in this turbulence and an era of defying convention lies an exceptional value creation opportunity for brands and organisations which stay strongly pivoted at the heart of their customers. And it is unleashing this power of insights and creation of delightful customer experiences to conquer new frontiers, which is now the soul of the ‘Raymond Reimagined’ journey”.
“Having entered the second phase of the Raymond Reimagined journey, customer-centricity is not just fuelling new market creation but also ensuring sustainable and profitable growth for Raymond. The continued ascendance of the business can be attributed to a series of vision-aligned strategic initiatives that have demonstrated exemplary success in the market place and promise to be the growth drivers for the future”, he added.
Driven by Innovation
Inspired by the rapidly evolving lifestyle of customers, Raymond continues to reimagine its products, services and business models. To augment its internal organisational capabilities in areas of product technology, design and manufacturing, the company now has a stable platform to open-source and crowd-source any of these capabilities across the world. This new capability coupled with an accelerated thrust on product innovation, is paving the way for many ‘World-class Products’ and ‘World Firsts’ from Raymond.
Mr. Sanjay Behl observes: “During FY 2017-18, we launched the most expansive range of black suiting fabric and accessories under the canvas of Raymond ‘All Black Collection’. The Technosmart fabric was successfully extended to offer the stretch benefit. Product innovations in our apparel portfolio ranged from the launch of Yoga Denims to Reversible Shirts to LightWeight Sneakers to 3D-printed Accessories. Beyond products, there were a series of service innovations like express delivery in custom tailoring, concierge service in MTM products and zero interest financing facility for high value purchases. We believe that continuous innovation across the value chain will unlock disruptive growth for all our businesses”.
Reaching to the New India
With technology conquering physical barriers at breakneck speed and market places becoming increasingly flatter, Raymond is reaching out to newer markets at an equally scorching pace – both in physical and digital formats. The company believes that experiential shopping for fabric and apparel, coupled with bespoke tailoring and fashion advisory services, will always be in vogue.
Inspired by this thought, Raymond has embarked upon a journey to gratify aspirations of its consumers in Tier III, IV, V and VI towns by launching an asset light franchise store model Mini TRS (The Raymond Shop). During the last fiscal, over 90 Mini TRS were rolled out, in addition to renovating 41 of its existing Raymond stores and launching 80 new exclusive brand stores for Raymond, Park Avenue, Parx and Color Plus. This scale of new retail roll-out by Raymond in FY 2017-18 marks the highest achieved by any brand ever in the industry. The company plans to cover 300 towns by 2020.
Digital Immersion
Mr. Sanjay Behl further says: “With a clear vision, enabling strategy and ongoing roadmap of ‘digital way of life’ at Raymond, we are rapidly learning to organise ourselves better in an information-based world. With the creation of Raymond’s Digital Customer Centre (DCC), the focus is now shifting to strengthening our Omnichannel capabilities across India’s largest physical retail footprint of 1,167 exclusive retail stores in over 450 cities. In addition to augmenting physical retail with pure play ecommerce and Omnichannel platforms, we launched an ‘Online Custom Tailoring’ service in Mumbai and Pune which is gaining traction with the potential to grow exponentially”.
Building sustainable platforms and ecosystem
A robust, large and productive tailoring ecosystem is one the most critical enablers for the sustained growth of the fabric business. The company plans to create an effective outreach programme for over one lakh tailors in the country and double their income by 2020. This programme primarily entails the upskilling existing tailors, upgrading technology, facilitating microfinance and providing employability on a sustained basis. During the last fiscal, Raymond set up the world’s first tailoring ‘Centre of Excellence’, launched 25 state-of-the-art tailoring hubs, trained 20,000 tailors and logged over 100,000 hours of formal training.
Leading a Movement called Khadi
Mr. Sanjay Behl says: “We believe that Khadi is not just any other product but are volution in waiting. It is our aim to take this fabric of national pride infused with artisans’ love, and put it on the pedestal of global fashion. Khadi, just like Yoga, could single-handedly pave the way for ‘India’s craft economy’ in global markets”.
In creating a compelling range of products and accessories, Raymond aims to reinvigorate the craftsmanship quintessential to India by collaborating with Khadi artisans at the cluster level and enable market linkages.
“With continued consumption growth in urban and rural India, and benefited by the broad-based structural reforms like GST, we believe that Raymond has an unprecedented opportunity to create significant value for all its stakeholders. And with the epicentre of the Raymond Reimagined evolution strongly rooted in customer centricity, we remain confident of creating a virtuous growth cycle and a perpetual source of competitive advantage in the years to come”, Mr. Sanjay Behl adds.