The auto component division of Raymond is working on a strategy to tap the opportunity in the market for electric vehicles. “The EV space is a work in progress… we are looking at the opportunities,” Gautam Hari Singhania, chairman and managing director of the Raymond group, told The Telegraph.
The auto component division focuses on ring gears, flexplates and water pump bearings. “The segment has performed well,” Singhania said. Battery swapping is an option in electric vehicles.
He said the group is looking to expand the real estate and FMCG businesses even as it grows the garments unit in the international markets.
Singhania said the realty business would expand beyond the Thane area as there were a number of emerging opportunities, although there are no plans to move beyond Mumbai.
“There is so much work to be done here and there are a number of opportunities.”
He said the footfall in the company’s garment showrooms have increased with the receding of the Covid-19 pandemic. Raymonds would continue to focus on men’s clothings, Singhania said. More than 90 per cent of its textile business come from showrooms across the country.
Although the firm has an online presence, the “touch and feel" experience continues to attract customers to the showrooms.
Raymonds expects to export more apparels as there is a growing realistion in the world markets that countries cannot depend on just China for global supplies .
Asked on plans for women apparel, with demand for formal attire rising among working women, Singhania said “that’s a completely different category and not an extension…for the time being we plan to concentrate on the men's category only”.
The firm had recently ventured into the educational aid segment and plans to expand it in a big way.
Raymond will complete its 100th year in 2025. The firm in the December quarter saw its net profit soar to Rs 101.07 crore compared with Rs 22.18 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations was up 48.25 per cent to Rs 1,843.39 crore during the quarter against Rs 1,243.44 crore in the previous fiscal.
According to the company, it had reported the “highest profitable quarter in the last 10 years” and its revenue is now “100 per cent of pre-Covid levels”.
