In response to the vast opportunity emerging out of the removal of quota barriers worldwide, the Raymond group has chosen denim as a thrust area for its global forays and has already invested Rs350-crore in its world class plant at Yavtamal, in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra, in Western India Amongst the top two producers of denim in India, Raymond Limited has announced a further expansion of its denim manufacturing capacity by 10-million metres per annum. The total project cost for this would be Rs100 crore.

This will augment Raymond''s denim capacity at its Yavatmal denim unit to 40 million metres per annum. The company has recently commissioned a world class ''rope Indigo'' dyeing plant, which will enable the company to reach additional capacity by January 2006.

According to Gautam Singhania, chairman and managing director, Raymond Limited, "This investment for augmenting our denim division will help in meeting the unfulfilled demand for specialty denim from our discerning and trend setting customers. Over a period of time, I envision exporting most our denim production as high value added jeans wear to the best labels worldwide. As a step towards achieving this, Raymond has already set up EverBlue Apparel Limited (a 100 per cent subsidiary of Raymond), which is a 10,000-pieces a day, state of the art jeanswear facility, at the apparel park in Bangalore."

Raymond currently exports its denim to over 30 countries across the world and is a supplier to top brands including Levis, GAP, Zara and store brands like H&M, Next, etc. The Group has a turnover of over Rs1800 crore ($400 million), through fabrics, readymade garments, designer wear, denim, cosmetics and toiletries, engineering files and tools, prophylactics, & air charter operations.