Raymond earmarks ₹280-cr capex for second half

Textile major Raymond has assigned a capex of ₹280 crore for the second-half of the year. The bulk of the capex will be used for constructing its plants at Amravati in Maharashtra (₹150 crore) and Ethiopia (₹50 crore) and the rest for its retail stores and maintenance.

Sanjay Behl, CEO, Lifestyle, Raymond, said: “We have spent a capex of ₹69 crore for the first half of 2016. The second-half will have a capex of ₹280 crore of which about ₹50 crore will be spent on our retail stores. This year we added about 40 stores and about 50 stores were renovated.’’

Today, Raymond has a total of 1,050 stores across all formats which include 47 stores in West Asia and the SAARC region covering 1.93 million square feet of retail space.

It has also been investing behind technologies such as Technosmart in the shirting segment. “We have spent ₹100 crore for the Technosmart product as there is big innovation being planned and we are seeking value growth in this segment,” added Behl.

The textile company has shirt brands across its four ready-made brands and has segmented the shirts, according to their target segment and price points. While Park Avenue shirts would be at the belly of the market with pricing between ₹1,500 and ₹1,800, Raymond shirts would get pegged above ₹2,000 with no discount schemes behind it.

Raymond is already investing behind a tailoring platform where it is training about 10,000 tailors and intends scaling it up along with its tailoring services. “Tailoring made up about 52 per cent of our shirt fabric sale and we also have a concierge platform to provide tailoring services to reach out to consumers,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, its made to measure (MTM) stores, which grew at 32 per cent during the first half, has yet to make money. “ It will take another year to build the business which is going to be strategic, since we expect large margins with a ₹100-crore annualised turnover in the next two years,’’ he said.

Raymond’s non-core businesses such as tools and hardware and auto components are also being made to create value. “We did create value in the auto business by disposing the forging business and have to take strategic options for non-core segments. Even in tools and hardware, we may take a similar turn as we want to improve margins in the business,’’ added Behl.