Raymond New Exclusive Retail Channel For Menswears Soon  ( February '16,2004, FE)

Raymond Apparel Ltd, a part of the Rs 1,400-crore Raymond group, has firmed up big plans to develop a new exclusive retail channel for each of its menswear brands Park Avenue, Manzoni and Parx. Currently, these brands are primarily sold through a chain of 285 exclusive The Raymond Stores (TRS), which are managed by its group firm Raymond Ltd.

TRS accounts for around two-third of the retail sales for Park Avenue and Manzoni and around 50 per cent for Parx. Raymond Apparel is expected to post a retail turnover of Rs 250 crore in 2003-04.

Shreyas Joshi, executive director, Raymond Apparel, said, “In the first year (2004-05), we’ll have a new company-owned exclusive retail chain for apparel brands. This will comprise six exclusive stores for Park Avenue (size: 2000-2,500 sqft each), two for Manzoni (over 3,000 sqft each), and two for Parx (1,000-1,500 sqft each).”

Raymond is putting special focus on growing the luxury lifestyle brand Monzoni. Besides exlusive outlets, the brand will also be rolled out in 50 TRS shops with a 20X8 sqft shop-in-shop retailing concept in 2004-05.

“We will add more expensive ranges to Monzoni this year. The price range for Monzoni shirts will widen from Rs 1,800-Rs 3,600 to Rs 5,000 upwards in spring/summer. There will be similar additions in other categories like jackets (Rs 9,000-Rs 14,000) and trousers (Rs 3,600-Rs 4,500),” Mr Joshi said.

After the debacle of the cheap shirts last season, Raymond has decided to exit the price-point of sub-Rs 800 for shirts in Park Avenue. Earlier, the company was offering cotton-blended shirts at a price point of Rs 599 but now it offers only expensive cotton, especially Egyptial Giya, American Supima and some higher Indian versions.” “Our entire Park Avenue portfolio looks revamped. Price realisation has jumped by around 15 per cent,” said Mr Joshi. “We’re also planning to launch a different concept of undergarments in Park Avenue in April,” he added.

Park Avenue used to maintain undergarment portfolio five years ago. Mr Joshi said that the company was once again moving towards in-house manufacturing to have better control over quality.