The company is expected to create three million man-hours of employment for khadi weavers through its retail venture.

Raymond, which is planning the retail roll-out of its khadi products in October, expects a five per cent revenue share in its over Rs 1,200-crore apparel business to come from this segment.

“We hope to roll out khadi products under the Raymond Ready to Wear brand by October, and expect to do Rs 60 to Rs 70 crores of business from khadi this year. While in the first phase we will focus on domestic sales, in the second phase we have the intention of selling khadi apparel internationally,” Gaurav Mahajan, president, apparel business at Raymond, said.

Of the total branded apparel revenue of Rs 1,270 crores in financial year 2016-17, the company’s Park Avenue brand generated Rs 593 crores, followed by ColorPlus at Rs 275 crores, Raymond Ready To Wear at Rs 225 crores, and Parx at Rs 173 crores.

The company has a range of products in khadi, including suits, shirts, western wear and sherwani, among others. Raymond's design team has been working closely with khadi weavers across the country under the Khadi Village Industries Commission.

Eventually, Raymond would be sourcing 400,000 metres of khadi from KVIC clusters. The company is expected to create three million man-hours of employment for khadi weavers through its retail venture. There are around 25 khadi weaving clusters under the KVIC, where the handwoven fabric is sold in the price range of Rs 150 to Rs 1,000 a metre. “There is a lot of design intervention being done from our side in collaboration with weavers,” said Mahajan.

He said the roll-out would initially be in the domestic market through The Raymond Shop and Raymond Ready to Wear stores, and would later be expanded to other stores, including multi-brand outlets.

Raymond had 1,080 stores across all formats, including exclusive-brand outlets and flagship The Raymond Shop, in 400 towns as on March 31. Of these, the company had 714 TRS, 28 Raymond Ready to Wear EBOs, 135 ColorPlus EBOs, 82 Park Avenue EBOs, 60 Raymond MTM EBOs, and 12 Parx EBOs.

In addition, the company has 49 overseas stores across Bahrain, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Photographs: Courtesy Raymond Limited.