Raymond, Limeroad bet big on small cities for growth

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jan 10, 2019

Leading apparel companies like Raymond and Limeroad are looking to tap the smaller towns in India to drive growth in the coming years.
 

These fashion retailers see huge potential for growth in these cities and plan to expand their presence there to gain a larger market share of the fashion market in the country.
 
As online fashion retailer LimeRoad plans to expand its retail presence by opening 3,000 offline stores in the next three years, Raymond is looking to consolidate its market position in these cities.

“LimeRoad is looking to open 3,000 offline stores in the smaller towns in the next three years, The company currently has two stores and will come up with 20 more stores in the next few months in northern belts of the country before taking the aggressive expansion route,” Suchi Mukherjee, CEO, and founder of the company told Economic Times.
 
"We decided to start a test offline store nine months ago. This is a very high margin business. There is a huge opportunity for taking this business offline. We want to reach deep inside India through these retail stores," Mukherjee added.
 
Raymond which already has a significant presence in tier 2, 3 and 4 cities across India is now looking to make inroads in some of the smallest towns with populations as low as 50,000 with its Mini TRS (The Raymond Shop) concept.
 
Mohit Dhanjal, director-retail at Raymond said, “There are 800 smaller towns in the country where we can potentially open our small-format exclusive outlets. In the last year and a half, we have opened 200 such outlets and are on course to open 100 more outlets in the coming six months.”
 
"We believe we can open 100 Mini-TRS stores every year for the next 2-3 years, going forward," Dhanjal added.