Raymond Lifestyle Will Not Venture Into Women’s Wear Business, Says Gautam Singhania

Raymond Lifestyle Ltd. has no plans to enter the women's wear business, Group Chairman Gautam Singhania said on Thursday, after the company's stellar listing saw its stock nearly double in value over the issue price.

"We have stated we are not getting into the women's wear business," the billionaire garment tycoon told NDTV Profit. He said each of the three businesses of the group—real estate, garments, and the parent company—will function separately and unlock value for shareholders.

Raymond Lifestyle was locked in the 5% lower circuit after its debut on the bourses. The stock was listed on the BSE at Rs 3,000 apiece, a premium of 99.5% over its base price of Rs 1,503.3 per share. On the National Stock Exchange, the Raymond Lifestyle stock debuted at Rs 3,020 per share, marking a premium of 93% against the base price of Rs 1,562.6 per share.

The company has seen huge tailwinds from 'China+1' and now 'Bangladesh+1' strategies, CEO Sunil Kataria said, in reference to supply chains moving away from the two countries that dominate garment manufacturing.

He said Raymond Lifestyle is scaling up investments in store expansion and marketing in its ethnic-wear business and is also focusing on new verticals like innerwear and sleepwear. "We are looking to disrupt the value part of the sleepwear segment. Innerwear will be both multi-brand and own stores."

Raymond demerged its consumer lifestyle business to create a pure-play consumer-branded apparel and textiles business. Post the demerger, Raymond Lifestyle will have four key segments—wedding and ethnic wear, garment exports, branded apparel, and textiles.

The Mumbai-based firm aims to open 800–900 new apparel and textile stores over the next three years, with its ethnic clothing brand, Ethnix, set to launch nearly 100 new stores this year alone.

Raymond has also announced a vertical split to demerge its real estate business.

The demerger plan aims to exploit the growth potential of the real estate business and attract a fresh set of investors and strategic partners to participate in it, Raymond said. The current promoter ownership of the Mumbai-based garment maker is 49.01%.