Raymond wants to woo consumers this winter

This is that time of the year when the consumer becomes king.

First it was consumer durables and FMCGs. Now it's the textiles and readymades marketers who are gearing up to lure buyers.

Textile company Raymond, which is into its 75th year, has lined up a big promotion to celebrate the occasion. The Mumbai-based company wants to spend half of its annual advertising budget at Rs 10 crore over the next three months in promoting its 'once-in-a-lifetime' sales promotion scheme, said Raymond executive director (marketing & sales) S K Gupta. All that is besides a whole host of ‘assured gifts' that would come the buyers' way with the purchase of Rs 1,000-worth of Raymond products during the 75-day period between October 17 and December 31, 2001. The company wants to spend another Rs 20 crore on gifts alone. And the prizes range from watches and mobile phone to… hold your breath … two Mercedes Benz C Class cars.

The supporting advertising (created by Enterprise Nexus) to hype up the celebration bash breaks today and will continue till December 31. The multi-media campaign will focus on mass channels and magazines in both Hindi and English. Hoardings and ground activities will pick up as the festivities draw near. "We expect all these activities to generate about 40 per cent more sales during this period compared to the same period last year," added Sanjay Badhe, director, retail and marketing services.

That's not all. There is a major expansion on the cards. "We aim to expand our existing network of 260 retail shops to over 350 outlets by 2003. This will be in addition to the 1,000 shop-in-shops and 20,000 multi-brand retail shops present across the country," Gupta said. On Raymond's renewed thrust on retail and distribution, Gupta said the company also plans to launch 100 new ‘high-street stores' for branded menswear over the next one year selling its readymade brands Prax and Park Avenue.

Also on the anvil is opening three outlets abroad - in Doha, Dubai and Bangkok - by March next year and launching a ‘superior' suiting collection, Chairman's Collection.

Raymond, which has just completed a round of massive restructuring, has earned about Rs 1,150 crore cash surplus and managed to become a zero-debt operation. This involved selling off the cement and steel businesses and amalgamating the denim division within the company. Currently, this Rs 1,400-crore company is into textiles, apparel, industrial files and tools, denims, men's cosmetics, condoms and air charter services.

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