Textile conglomerate Raymond is back to being a venerated company, but the transformation has only started. Until now, the company had gone for renovation rather than expansion, its ceo Sanjay Behl has said.

Behl has started with simplifying the company structure and broke it down into costumer centric division rather than product centric verticals. He then moved to divesting or shutting down non crore parts of business. The company then shut down low cost fabric brands while selling off carpets, cottons, upholstery businesses.

To effectively strengthen its business, Behl shut down 75 under performing, non-strategic stores in the last few years. The step taken by him led to a painful drop in workforce forcing 500 people to leave the company. “Six month after i joint, i invest half my time getting the right people,” he said.

Behl said “transformation has only started and we have enough to do.” The brand is now positioning as classic premium, Park Avenue as contemporary premium, ColorPlus as smart casual and Parx as economy casual.

Behl said the task of turning Raymond into a true lifestyle fashion retail company is stil a work in progress but it is safe to say the company has turnaround. For Behl, it was far from easy. “Before the action, there was a period of inactions,” he commented. Three years sonce Behl took over as ceo, the stock has doubled outpacing the sensex’s rise of 34 per cent. Revenue has grown 37 per cent and profit more than tripled.