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Textile major Raymond is looking at setting up more manufacturing bases outside the country to take full advantage of the quota free regime that will come into effect from January 1, 2005.
The company has a garmenting factory in Portugal catering to the European market. Nabankur Gupta, group president and whole time director of Raymond, said the company was evaluating number of opportunities at present.
"There are many proposals. We are looking at them. Nothing has been finalised as yet. It has to make financial sense for the company," Gupta said.
The lifting of quota by WTO members will end all quantitative limits on textiles and clothing, allowing countries like China and India to get bigger pie of the lucrative western markets.
Raymond is looking at overseas destinations on various factors like brands, logistics, distribution and manufacturing facility to seize this opportunity.
"These are important issues that we will look at while choosing a location. Geographically, we are open to all destinations," Gupta pointed out. The company is expanding its capacity within India as well to make grades suitable for the export market.
A factory for suits and jackets just went on stream. A factory for denim uppers and jeans will be ready by the middle of next year while a shirt manufacturing base will start producing from next year. All three are located in Bangalore.
"Already we are exporting to some of the best brands like Levis, GAP, Zara. Now the value addition will be done in India and we could be exporting to these companies only," Gupta pointed out.
Raymond is investing Rs 225 crore (Rs 2.25 billion) in the expansion programmes. Moreover, it is also making investments worth Rs 127 crore (Rs 1.27 billion) towards capacity expansion of its existing denim manufacturing facility at Yavatmal, Maharashtra, from 20 million meter to 30 million meter.
Raymond with Park Avenue, biggest single apparel brand, is also consolidating domestic business. "At present, sales from fabric is 80 per cent while that from garments 20 per cent. We presume, share of garment will grow," Gupta noted.
Raymond has 313 exclusive showrooms in India contributing about 35 per cent of total sales. It plans to expand domestic presence by new outlets using the mall format. Internationally, it will also bolster presence by more showrooms, Aniruddha Deshmukh, president (retail) informed.