Raymond Ltd is withdrawing its designer label Be: brand of stores and will relaunch without the “niche” tag, which the brand has been associated. The re-branding exercise is to reach wider audience in India, especially after Corporate Indians voted Local Brands as their Hot favorites in a Poll by Time magazine.
Currently Be: brand of stores are located in – Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, two each in Bangalore, Mumbai and three in Delhi. Mumbai and Delhi stores have been shut down.
An official spokesperson of Raymond India said,
Be: will cease to be a niche brand. Be: will be made into a more relevant brand and will address a wider population ulkike in the past where the brand was meant to address a niche set of people. Be: will not be a mass brand an d the decision to associate designers with it is being evaluated.
Mr. Gupta, president of Raymond Ltd said,
There was nothing wrong with the Be: brand but there are number of women’s wear brand that Raymond already has – Color Plus and Park Avenue which can be part of Be: tomorrow.
Be: brand came into existence in 2001. Designers such as Priyadarshini Rao, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Singh and Raghavendra Rathore were associated with it. Merchandise was priced between Rs 600 to Rs 6,000.