For a company whose name has long been synonymous with suits, Raymond Lifestyle is increasingly looking beyond the suit. The apparel maker is reshaping its House of Brands around two trends that it sees as increasingly difficult to ignore: casualisation and premiumisation, as formalwear loses its dominance and a K-shaped consumer recovery leaves the middle of the market squeezed.
“Formals are no longer the most important part of the business,” Satyaki Ghosh, CEO Raymond Lifestyle, said in an interaction with businessline.
Casualwear currently accounts for about 47 per cent of the company’s House of Brands and Raymond Lifestyle wants to take that to 50 per cent as its portfolio evolves. However, the shift will not mean abandoning the formalwear franchise that built the company.
Casual products
For Raymond and Park Avenue, the plan is to add more casual products while pushing the brands further up the premium ladder. ColorPlus, already positioned as a casual brand, will move towards higher price points, while Parx will be used to target a more mass segment.
“The brands need casualisation,” Ghosh said, pointing to changing fits and preferences among younger consumers. t-shirts, stretch trousers, shorter and looser silhouettes are becoming more relevant as younger shoppers move away from the traditional formal wardrobe.
The strategy also reflects what Ghosh described as a “K-shaped” recovery, with premium consumers continuing to spend while the mass market finds new demand from rising incomes. The pressure, he said, is concentrated in the middle.
Raymond Lifestyle therefore does not intend to chase the rapidly expanding value-fashion market dominated by players. Instead, the company wants to remain in the premium, super-premium and bridge-to-luxury segments, Ghosh clarified.
Customised occasion wear
That positioning is also shaping its approach to Ethnix, its ethnicwear brand. Raymond plans to use its manufacturing capabilities to offer higher-ticket, customised occasion wear.
The broader reset comes as the company’s branded apparel business showed only modest growth in the June quarter. Apparel revenue rose 4 per cent year-on-year to ₹349 crore, although casual brands grew in double digits.
Raymond’s own e-commerce contribution is about 10 per cent of branded apparel revenue, with an ambition to take it towards 15-20 per cent.
The company is simultaneously trying to diversify its export business away from the US towards Europe, although Ghosh expects the transition to take time as European orders move through sampling and vendor-approval cycle.
For Raymond Lifestyle, the challenge is not simply becoming more casual. It is finding growth without becoming another mass-fashion player and doing so while protecting the economics of a century-old brand business.