Will Everybody Love Raymond?

Gautam Hari Singhania is hoping they will as he encourages handpicked professionals to reimagine the lifestyle and consumer businesses and even go where the group has never gone before: real estate.

- Aveek Datta

It may be a few thousand miles away—literally and figuratively—from London’s fabled Savile Row and its bespoke suits but The Raymond Shop in south Mumbai’s Breach Candy gets an A for effort. The 94-year-old apparel and textile brand’s atelier occupies three levels of the 36-storeyed J.K. House, the Raymond group’s headquarters. On display are suit-adorned chiselled mannequins; a range of fine cotton and linen fabric; handmade leather shoes from Spain; accessories like cufflinks and ties; and even Indian ethnic wear.

For generations of customers, it might take a minute to recalibrate. Because it is a new Raymond. And the old rules don’t apply.

The shift isn’t merely optical. Change is visible in approach too.

Located 40 km from J.K. House is J.K. Gram, a 120-acre township in Thane, home to Raymond’s flagship textile mill till it was shut down in 2010. The unit had started moving its geography—to Vapi in Gujarat—from 2005. Gone are the chimneys billowing smoke (some moss-infested ruins remain) and blue-collared workers punching in and out at the sound of the siren. These have been replaced with sprawling glass-and-steel hangars comprising open offices for management strategists and young fashion graduates, the latter sketching designs or examining fabric to build the season’s collection.

This transformation isn’t physical alone. It is symbolic of a broader objective playing out at the company: To leverage on the sustained love for Raymond, the brand.

In an evolving textiles industry, for instance, it continued to hold the affection of its customers while peers like Vimal, Oswal, Mafatlal, and S. Kumars have been marginalised. The concern, however, is that its existence was sub-optimal at best. Growth had stagnated, operations were inefficient, and many of its businesses were losing money.