Raymond

Introduction
With a 33 million-meter capacity in wool & wool-blended fabrics, Raymond commands
over 60% market share in worsted suiting in India and ranks amongst the first three fully
integrated manufacturers of worsted suiting in the world. They claim to be the only
company in the world to have a diverse product range of nearly 20,000 design and
colours of suiting fabric to suit every age, occasion and style. These are exported to over
50 countries, including USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and the Middle East.

They have integrated the 4 P’s that is, Product, Place, Price and Promotion into their
marketing strategy so soundly that it virtually ensures that this age old company will
continue to reign over the fabric sector for years to come. This case study explores not
just Raymond’s association with the 4 P’s of marketing but contrasts it with the strategies
implemented by its biggest competitors.

A 100% subsidiary of Raymond Ltd., Raymond Apparel Ltd. (RAL) ranks amongst
India's largest and most respected apparel companies. Their brands include Raymond
Finely Crafted Garments, Manzoni, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx, Be: and Zapp!
and Notting Hill.

Raymond is one of India’s leading fabric and garment manufacturers. In 2006/07 alone
its textile and clothing operations—including wholly owned subsidiaries and joint
ventures—generated sales of Rs11.1 billion (US$283 million). From its origins and core
strengths in worsted suiting fabrics, the company diversified into the production of denim
fabrics, cotton shirtings and garments. It also built up a presence in retailing and it claims
to be India’s largest fabric and garment retailer.

History of the Company

Years ago, the Singhania family was building, consolidating and expanding its various
businesses in Kanpur. Mr. Wadia was, in a similar manner, setting up a small woollen
mill in the area around Thane creek, 40 kms away from Bombay. The Sassoons, a well-
known industrialist family of Bombay, soon acquired this mill and renamed it as The
Raymond Woollen Mills. Around the same time, the Singhanias aimed to broaden their
business horizons. The family's sharp business foresight led to the acquisition of The
Raymond Woollen Mills. When the grandson of Lala Juggilal, Lala Kailashpat Singhania
took over Raymond in 1944, the mill primarily made cheap and coarse woollen blankets,
and modest quantities of low priced woollen Fabrics

The vision and foresight of Mr. Kailashpat Singhania greatly helped in establishing the
J.K. Group's presence in the western region. Under his able stewardship, Raymond
embarked upon a gradual phase of technological upgradation and modernization;
producing woolen Fabrics of a far superior quality. Under Mr. Gopalakrishna Singhania,
the mill became a world-class factory and the Raymond brand became synonymous with
fine quality woollen Fabrics

When Dr. Vijaypat Singhania took over the reins of the company in 1980, he injected
fresh vigour into Raymond, transforming it into a modern, industrial conglomerate. His
son Mr. Gautam Hari Singhania, the present chairman and managing director has been
instrumental in restructuring the group. With the divestment of its non-core businesses,
the group has emerged stronger, with a more focused approach.

Latest Developments
Since 2001 Raymond had been expanding aggressively through divestment,
collaborations and joint ventures with foreign firms, as well as capacity expansions. In
2001 it acquired Regency Texteis Portuguesa—a plant in northern Portugal which
manufactures suits, jackets and trousers for the European market—and in 2002 it bought
ColorPlus Fashions. Since then it has set up four joint ventures, namely Raymond
Zambaiti, Raymond Fedora, Raymond UCO Denim and Gas Apparel. It has also
established three wholly-owned clothing manufacturing subsidiaries: Silver Spark
Apparel, Everblue Apparel and Celebrations Apparel. In addition, it has added
approximately 25 mn metres of annual fabric capacity to its existing plants.

Raymond has also become vertically integrated by constructing state-of-the art facilities
for its garment manufacturing companies as well as design studios established through
joint ventures and retail operations. Raymond sees retail expansion as an important way
to penetrate the market and increase sales even further. The company has over 400 retail
and brand stores across 170 cities in India and the Middle East. Recently, it opened its
350th The Raymond Shop in India, and plans to increase this number to 950 by 2010. It
also has exclusive standalone stores which stock its brands—including Manzoni, Park
Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx, Be and Zapp! These stores are on the increase as the company
broadens its product portfolio.

Raymond’s Association with the 4 P’s

1. Product

Raymond has under it different brands of shirts and suitings: Raymond Finely Crafted
Garments, Manzoni, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx, Be: and Zapp! and Notting Hill.

Raymond is counted as one of the world's premier manufacturers of worsted suiting

fabric in fine grade wool; in the same league as the finest that Europe has to offer.

The Raymond product range includes pure wools, wool blended with exotic fibres like
camel hair, cashmere and angora and innovative blends of wool with polyester, linen and
silk. Raymond offers suiting and trousering fabric for all occasions and needs
Manzoni

Formal Wear
Manzoni formal shirts are available in regular 2 fold 100s, 2 fold 120s upto 2 fold 200s
with fine structures such as dobby, herring-bone, diamond structures, stripes and checks,
and solids such as white, purple, pink, blue, etc. Collars range from regular, semi cutaway
and spread collars to two button collar bands. The buttons on Manzoni shirts are made of
the finest natural mother of pearl.

Formal suits are made of super fine wool ranging from super 120s to super 150s. These
suits have an Italian silhouette with superb construction and excellent drape. Jackets are
offered in contemporary styles of single-breasted 2-button and single breasted 3-button
with high notch lapels.

Formal trousers have a clean look and are well constructed with a lining that provides
total comfort to the waistband. Intricate features include French fly, blind stitched loops,
rounded belt extensions & ‘D’ bartags at the back pockets for additional strength to the
garment.

Sports wear has a wide and varied range of 100% linen and washed shirts in vibrant
colours available in half sleeves. Colourful checks, vibrant stripes and bright solids in
fashion colours like fuchsia, orange, aqua, blue, green and peach complete the casual
Italian look.

Trousers are available in 100% cotton and linen in regular flat front styles, washed for a
soft hand feel. Apart from the basic black, navy blue to off-whites, these trousers are also
available in fashion colours like Orange, Magenta and Red. Adding to the premium
casual look are 5-pocket ‘jeans-style’ trousers in 100% linen and ‘drawstring trouser’ in
100% linen.

Manzoni’s Bona Sera evening line consists of washed 100% silk jacquard shirts in
colours like orange, red, blue, purple apart from the classic neutral shades.

Manzoni also has a line of accessories that include fine leather bags, shoes, belts, silk ties
and cotton socks.

Be:

Be: offers a wide range of apparel and accessories for women across categories namely -
Women’s Western wear, Women’s Ethnic wear, Lounge Wear and Club wear.

Be: brings a large collection of designer products to a large audience that is increasingly
becoming aware of designer wear and dreams of possessing one. Affordability,
Accessibility and Acceptability are the three attributes that characterize Be:

Zapp!
Zapp! provides an exciting range of apparel, accessories and lifestyle products for kids
between the age group of 4 to 14 years.

Baby Zapp! consolidates the offering as a specialized category targeted at the 0 to 3

infant segment with great care on safety and comfort. This specially crafted range
includes a miniature fashion line, utility apparel and accessories and a home line.

Parx

Parx is a premium casual lifestyle brand which is positioned to cater to the needs of
consumers of 22-30 year olds. It has categories like Urban, Sport, Excursion and Club.

ColorPlus

ColorPlus is one of India's leading casual wear brands. It offers shirts, trousers, knits,
survival gear and accessories that meet international quality standards.

ColorPlus Woman has been fashioned into an assortment of shirts, trousers, dresses,
capris, t-shirts, skirts, jackets and denim jeans. The newly launched brand offers five
lines of clothing including Day Wear, Sporty Casual Wear, Outdoor Wear, Business
Casual Wear and the Evening Wear. Each line sports distinct styles and fits offered in an
array of exquisite garments to make a woman feel great all day long. The fabrics used for
the construction of this exclusive range include linen, 100% cotton, cotton-blends, printed
silks, satin and georgettes.

All the collections are complemented by a matching range of accessories like genuine
leather hand bags, hand braided belts, shoes & scarves.

Notting Hill

Notting Hill reflects style and manifests originality of today's fashion-conscious and
discerning young professionals at an affordable price.

Notting Hill was launched in 2007 to cater to the popular price segment. Designed in-
house, the brand collection features a spectrum of men's lifestyle products comprising of
suits, shirts, trousers, jeans, t-shirts and also accessories like ties, handkerchiefs and
socks.

2. Place

Raymond reaches its customers through The Raymond Shop and through exclusive
outlets.

The Raymond Shop is a premium retail store offering complete wardrobe solutions for
men which includes top-of-the-line brands - Raymond, Raymond Finely Crafted
Garments, Manzoni, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, Parx and Notting Hill.
The Raymond Shop network started with a small corner shop in Ballard Estate, Mumbai
around five decades ago. It has grown multifold with a dedicated team making it the
largest retail store in the country having 548 stores in prime locations, in over 196 cities
in India.

The Raymond shops are located in different countries

• Bahrain
• Bangladesh
• Kuwait
• Saudi Arabia
• Sri Lanka
• Sultanate Of Oman
• U.A.E.

In India Raymond shops are located at

In southern part:
Andaman and Nicobar Islands
• Andhra Pradesh
• Karnataka
• Kerala
• Pondicherry
• Tamil Nadu

In northern part:
• Chandigarh
• Delhi
• Haryana
• Himachal Pradesh
• Jammu and Kashmir
• Punjab
• Rajasthan
• Sikkim
• Uttar Pradesh
• Uttaranchal

In western part:
• Chhattisgarh
• Goa
• Gujarat
• Madhya Pradesh
• Maharashtra

In eastern part:
• Assam
• Bihar
• Jharkhand
• Meghalaya
• Orissa
• Tripura
• West Bengal

Their overseas network spans 36 stores in 15 plus cities across the Middle East, Saudi
Arabia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Be: from Raymond Ltd. is a 13 store chain. It has a pan India presence with a store each
in Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, two each in Bangalore, Mumbai
and three in Delhi.

Zapp! retails through 20 exclusive stores, is available across Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle,
Pantaloon and Central and the top 120 multibrand kidswear stores in the country. The
Zapp! stores offer both fun while shopping and the best product available in terms of
choice, design and quality. With changing rooms designed as igloos, and others
suspended over glass floors with pebbles, the stores allow the child to conjure up an
adventure. With his own Zapp! membership card, the child is made to feel the like the
special customer that he is.

Parx retails through 19 exclusive stores.

ColorPlus is present in over 180 locations in the South and West Asia through exclusive
stores and select 'The Raymond Shop' outlets.

Notting Hill is retailed across India in a phased manner beginning with Pune and other
cities in Maharashtra. By the end of the first year Notting Hill was to be made available
across India with over 400 distribution points.

3. Promotion

Raymond indulges heavily in promoting its brands. Like most companies it relies heavily
on print and TV advertisements for this purpose.

It has full length advertisements featured on the television. Of these the most popular
ones are those where the lead character is playing with puppies while still in his suit, the
ad featuring the relationship between a father and a son-in-law, between a father and a
daughter, father and son and one showing that between the teacher and his students.
Raymond’s advertisements, thus, always try to show the sensitive, more refined side of a
man and it is followed by their tagline with the distinctive melody Raymond… The
Complete Man
Although Raymond also has apparels for women, women are seldom the lead characters
of its advertisements, both printed and on TV.

Raymond’s Manzoni organizes Style Icon Awards of the Year.

It makes regular press releases. The latest one of these was on October 22, 2009
announcing its financial results. Before that it received coverage when it announced
investment of Rs. 100cr in opening 300 new retail stores and aiming for Rs. 200cr in
revenue.

Although Raymond sells only through The Raymond Shop and exclusive outlets, it has
made itself visible online through its exhaustive website www.raymondindia.com

Raymond doesn’t believe price reductions alone can draw more people to its stores or
boost sales. To enter small cities such as Gandhidham, Nadiad and Himmatnagar in
Gujarat and smaller markets in other states, Raymond banks on franchisees for its Park
Avenue formal menswear and Parx casual wear, in addition to price cuts.

In recent times, its sales took a real hit due to the slowdown and it decided to boost sales
by exploring its brands, enhancing its portfolio by adding new items and accessories than
just tweaking prices like Madura Garments did.

Madura Garments

Raymond’s biggest competitor in apparels is Madura Garments. Madura Garments, a

division of Aditya Birla Nuvo is India's leading apparel retail company. It enjoys market
leadership in the branded garments business through its power and popular lifestyle
brands — Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England.

The company has won many coveted awards in the fashion world like the “Best Retailer
of the Year, Best Apparel Company of the Year, Best Trouser Brand of the Year, Best
Smart Casual Brand of the Year” etc., at well known forays such as the Reid and Taylor
Awards and Images Fashion Awards.

Their thrust is on brand building through development of innovative new merchandise,

exciting communication campaigns and enhancing the product portfolio. The overall
marketing strategy has been to move from a “Wardrobe" brand to a "Lifestyle" brand

Madura’s Association with the 4 P’s

1. Product

Louis Philippe
It was the first genuinely international garment label introduced in the Indian market in
1989. The brand brings crafted range of silks, trousers, blazers, ties and T-shirts that
makes an exclusive fashion statement recognized by its distinctive icon The Upper Crest.
The brand creates an image of stylish, confident, spirited, cool ensemble with hidden
details, slimmer cuts. Lp — the youth brand from Louis Philippe, has introduced new
fashion formals range for today’s young and successful urbanites. The range exudes élan,
style and success which personifies today’s youth.

Van Heusen

Van Heusen, is a work-wear brand, brought to India in 1990. It has given corporate attire
altogether a new look and meaning through continuous product innovation and
exclusive collections such as Autumn Winter, Ken & Tony, Worldwear, Informals, IQ
Clothing, winter wear, knits, innerwear and accessories.

Cool Pants, designed using breakthrough technology adopted by NASA, or the Oxyrich
shirts with oxygen ions to neutralize high stress levels in the intelligent clothing (IQ)
range, are a few examples of the tradition of innovation that began with the invention of
the collar in 1919. Worldwear is Van Heusen's extension of the best-selling range of
corporate wear for the global Indian.

Men
Spring summer
Worldwear
Accessories
Innerwear
Knits

Women
Relaxed casual wear
Premium formal wear
Refined social wear
Flamboyant clubwear and accessories

Allen Solly

Allen Solly has established itself as the leading western wear brand redefining the
wardrobe of the modern Indian. It has popularized the Friday dressing concept in India.
With the launch of its women's wear range in December 2001, Allen Solly has made a
successful foray into the growing women's work and casual wear market. The brand has
won the most admired brand - Womenswear IFA 2004, 2005, 2007; most admired brand -
trousers IFA 2005; most admired brand - smart casuals IFA 2006. It has also won the IFA
Images 2001 best brand award in the readymade menswear category.
Workwear, evening wear & casual day wear.

Men
Sports, casual, urban, prodigy
Women
Casual, city career

Peter England

It portfolio includes shirts, trousers, denim, suits, ties, wallets, socks. It strictly deals with
men’s apparel.

2. Place
Madura Garments has exclusive showroom space which includes several large format
brand outlets of world-class standards, providing top quality retail experience to the
consumers. It also has a highly visible presence in large department and multi brand
stores.

Planet Fashion

Planet Fashion is the apparel retailing arm of Madura Garments, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd.
It houses not only their leading (in-house) menswear brands like Louis Philippe, Van
Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England, but also Levi's denim, Monte Carlo knitwear and
most recently, Jocky innerwear in selected stores.

It aims to be the complete wardrobe solution for a man - a one-stop destination for all his
apparel needs. Its product portfolio ranges from corporate formal wear to casual leisure
wear, accessories, t-shirts, winterwear and lately, denims and innerwear.

To bolster its presence significantly in the exploding apparel retail sector, the company
has started retailing its life style brand and affordable popular brands through two new
formats – Madura Garments Lifestyle Retail Company Limited and Peter England
Fashions and Retail Limited.

Current number of stores: 82 in India, 5 international

Cities: Across 50 cities in India, ranging from high streets like Connaught Place and
South Extension to smaller towns like Bareilly, Karnal and Dehradun.

International presence in Dubai (2), Sharjah, Qatar and Kathmandu

3. Promotion

Like its competitor, Madura too relies very heavily on advertisements, both print and
Television.

However Madura brands have been known to offer more sale opportunities to consumers.
Similarly they have more print advertisements than TV advertisements. Their
advertisements usually feature foreign men and women, indicating that they are a
universal and more international brand catering to both sexes.

Louis Phillipe goes by the tagline: The Upper Crest indicating that it is a premium
product meant for those with a refined taste in apparels. Allen Solly goes by the popular
tagline My world My way and recently has adopted I Hate Ugly as its catchphrase. It
indicates a strong sense of sense and speaks of lifestyle choices especially adventurous
and fashion conscious.

Besides having a highly organized retailing and web presence, other more regular
promotion schemes employed by Madura is continuous improvement in its products and
services, concept of multi brand outlets, fashion accessories, satisfying consumers of
multiple wardrobe under one brand and customer loyalty program where Privilege Cards
are issued to regular and frequent buyers.

By focusing on quality while having competitive prices and a very strong distribution
network, Madura has not only been able to capture a good market share, but it also wins
awards for its innovations and quality. Such awards no doubt further boost its popularity
and perception of reliability in eyes of the consumer.