BANGALORE: As part of its strategy to open exclusive Park Avenue stores in the country, Park Avenue launched its first exclusive store in Bangalore.
 
 
Located at Brigade Road, the Park Avenue store was inaugurated by Raymond Group president Pradeep Bhandari.

Speaking on the launch, Bhandari said, “This launch marks our entry in Southern India with this exclusive branded store from Raymond Apparel Ltd. The first Park Avenue store, launched in January 2005 in Mumbai, has received an overwhelming response. We plan to open around 15 more Park Avenue stores in the next 12 to 18 months all over India.”

“We plan to bring in more brand exclusive outlets. We’ve around 290 Raymond outlets, 20 of them owned or managed by Raymond which retail only all our brands. As has been the norm we shall continue growing at the rate of 25-30 new outlets every year, besides, we’ve also invested around Rs 1 billion across three apparel manufacturing plants in and around Bangalore,” added Bhandari.

 
 
Raymond has four brands, three through their 100 per cent subsidiary Raymond Apparel Ltd (RAL). RAL has in its folio three highly regarded men's wear brands including Park Avenue, Parx and Manzoni.
 
 
Park Avenue registers counter sales of around RS 1.5 billion (RS 1.1 billion ex-factory) annually, while all the brands bring in around RS 3.6 billion. Bhandari expects the two Park Avenue stores in Mumbai and Bangalore to rake in around RS 35-37 million during this fiscal. The turnover for the Raymond group, which had exited their cement business some time ago by hiving it off to a French cement major, is RS 18 billion.