Raymond

One of world’s biggest producers of worsted wool fabric ? Raymond ? began cutting jobs by laying off more than one-third employees as majority people have started working from home amid COVID-19 outbreak. The firm, that began operations since 1925 from Bombay (now Mumbai), started laying off to cut costs.

The firm is reducing jobs, rents, and marketing costs to decrease expenses by as much as 35% for the financial year started April 1. Raymond has taken this as an opportunity to re-set. What we know is this is a crisis and we will stand strong, said Chairman Gautam Hari Singhania.

Bloomberg quoted Singhania by saying, When you are a strong brand, recession always plays in your favor. Brooks Brothers (competitor brand) provides a very specific and formal range of clothing, unlike us, so it doesn’t bother us much.

As of now, Raymond is manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers from its Bengaluru factory. The firm has re-opened 1,332 out of 1,638 stores as of July 2 and is seeing about 45% of pre-pandemic sales.