‘There’s only way to go — to grow!’

To Be or not to Be. Only those who don’t have the answer, ask this question. But Gautam Singhania who opens Be — his pret line store — at Kemp’s Corner today has all the answers. About why pret lines have flopped and why he’s confident that he will make them happen.
The Chairman and MD of the Raymond Group is all ready with his explanations.About why he decided to sign on designers for pret lines after most Indian designers had failed each time they tried to introduce pret lines on their own. “Designers are essentially creative people. Marketing is a skill that we already have. So it made sense that they designed and we took care of production and sales. Primarily, designers failed on their own with pret lines because they could not make economic sense with low volumes. However, we offer them high volumes which means production costs go down,� says Gautam.
Gautam’s first Be store was opened in Delhi in July 2001, followed by stores in Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Dubai and Bangalore. The guy who glamourised condoms by introducing Kama Sutra in India, evidently loves exploring the unexplored. “The thought of pret-a-porter being a unique concept in India excited me. Besides, only corporates can help designers make it on an international platform. With Be, I plan to corporatise Indian designers.�
Gautam feels that designers who are creative lack branding and marketing skills. “This is one thing they won’t have to worry about anymore,’’ he says, revealing that they now have 12 leading labels designing for Be. The lines include ethnic and western wear for both men and women. There’s also a bit of fusion wear that one can pick from. Labels like Rohit Bal, Raghavendra Rathore, Ashish Soni, Priyadarshini Rao, Manish Arora, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Puja Nayyar and Anshu Sen will now be available priced anywhere between Rs 600 to Rs 6,000! Be now also ventures into a jewellery line.
And the Be man is as excited about his Rs 49 crore venture Color Plus, that his company bought over recently. “With Color Plus, I’ve covered every segment of the market. We had Parx, which was the casual line at a low price, Park Avenue targeted the working executive and I had Manzoni as well. But with Color Plus, we plan to synergise distribution and tap the market for premium casual wear.’’ Asked on what he plans to to do with an already established brand like Color Plus, Gautam says, “There is only one way to go and that’s to grow.�
Well, we guessed as much because he just isn’t gonna let it ‘Be!’