Raymond plans expansion through its arm-Raymond Home

Raymond, the branded home textile market in India, rechristened its bed and bath range of home furnishing products as Raymond Home. According to a top official of the brand with home fashion becoming a very important element in day-to-day life, India’s leading textile and apparel company Raymond Group’s arm, Raymond Home, plans to set up 30 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs).

This segment of Raymonds’ was introduced in 2013. Raymond Home will offer complete collection of bed sheets, pillow covers, comforters, blankets, bath robes, towels and exclusive wedding sets in a wide selection of colours and designs.

Pankaj Saxena, deputy general manager (sales), Raymond, said that they are selling eight to nine lakh blankets every year. We have rebranded the entire offering of Raymond blanket, bed and bath products as Raymond Home category for the branded home textile market in India.

The Raymond Home collection includes bed sheets, pillow covers, comforters, blankets, bath robes, and towels. For brand development, Raymond Home will be spending Rs 5 crore.

Raymond has already launched a print advertising campaign to promote the new brand. It now plans to open 28 exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) at select cities this year to expand reach, a senior company executive said.

Saxena added that they are doing a pilot study for Raymond Home exclusive outlets. In the next three months, they will be rolling out a few stores. They have a target of around 28 to 30 stores of 800 to 1,000 sq ft size.

He said that it all depends upon the pilot study. They have selected few cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and others. They are doing the Karnataka launch. They have invited retailers for the SS 15 (spring summer) collection. They are expecting 300 dealers and want to make their products available in more stores in the state.

Currently, Raymond Home products are available in over 1,500 MBOs (multi-branded outlets), 400 Raymond stores, LFS (large format stores), and e-Commerce platforms.

Raymond expects about 20 per cent of its annual sales to come from the e-commerce platforms like Jabong and Flipkart, among others.

With sales of Rs 70 crore in FY15, Raymond Limited is targeting Rs 100 crore in FY16 and Rs 300 crore by FY18 once it completes expansion across the country. The company is targeting four different business modules for placement of home furnishing range.

Saxena said that it wants to be present in the large format stores with shop-in-shop concept in major metros and B towns and opening of franchisee exclusive brand outlets and exclusive dealers all over the country. It also plans to reach out through its existing The Raymond Stores (TRS) in all Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Presently, its TRS network spans 800 outlets spread all over the country.

The distribution network will service vast home furnishing retailers pan India. The company has put in place a dedicated sales team under Saxena, who is heading the division. He said that Raymond is currently test marketing its range of products at two of its EBOs in Kolkata and will open two more outlets in Bengaluru and Hyderabad very soon.

Saxena said that apart from physical stores under various formats, Raymond is also testing waters through e-commerce platforms like Jabong, Flipkart among others. It expects about 20 per cent of its annual sales to come from the E-commerce route. However, the company does not have any plans to start its own online sales platform at the moment.