The Hindu Business Line : Raymond plans to enter women's wear market

"There is no real attempt to tap this market currently and we are convinced this could be the next big interesting thing for us," Mr Joshi said, adding that work on the project is at drawing board stage. "We are looking at various options for the venture and looking at multiple brands in women's wear to cater to every section. Our options could include foreign collaboration or acquisition," Mr Joshi said, adding that it is too early to comment on details.

Ethnic Wear

The Indian women's wear business is largely dominated by the unorganised sector and has recently seen action with Allen Solly launching a full range of western wear.

The Raymond venture into women's wear will also see the company catering to the fact that a large section of Indian women still wear ethnic clothes.

"Since our fabric does not lend itself to Indian ethnic wear, we will source this from various manufacturers but design will be done purely in-house," Mr Joshi said.

While the group has been predominantly a men's wear brand, it made a marginal play for the Indian woman's wallet with the launch of Be:, the brand that sells designer pret clothing, which stocks an eclectic mix of formal office and evening wear in western, ethnic and fusion.

The company, meanwhile, is on a major expansion drive for its brands such as Park Avenue, Parx, Manzoni and Color Plus among others and will set up large format flagship stores for each of this to promote growth in the future.

Mr Joshi said plans have been firmed up to set up flagship stores for Park Avenue (4,000 sq ft and up) in every metro and emerging metros to reach the level of 25 exclusive stores by March 2007 from the level of 13 today. The company launched a 5,000 sq ft flagship store in Pune on Friday.

Manzoni — the luxury men's wear brand — is meanwhile all set to debut in Kolkata next month and the company plans to take the total number to five by the end of the fiscal, adding stores in Bangalore and an additional store in Delhi. Parx outlets will grow from the current five to 12 during the same period while ColourPlus will add 10 to the existing 45 stores. The company's Rs 400-crore apparel business is growing at 30 per cent, according to Mr Joshi who said the emergence of multibrand stores across malls and high street locations are also fuelling growth for the brand.

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