I must be grateful for the kind of decisions that the group has made first, under your leadership. They were praised.
Gautam Singhania: We had a whole vision of what we wanted to do and unfortunately, we were pre-COVID. But COVID hit us hard and business stopped. We reduced our debt to zero by selling our FMCG business. It’s a good deal. It is the beginning of the realization of the dream because as soon as we do that, we can announce the demerger of the lifestyle business. That should be finished next month. Raymond has become a former lifestyle in July and now the regulatory process is active. That should create a lot of shareholder value. Well, now there are three different businesses – real estate, engineering and cars, and lifestyle. We have also announced the demerger of our real estate business. So we will have a pure real estate company next year.
The types of bookings we have seen for Raymond Realty…
Gautam Singhania: There are two ways to look at it. We don’t come from the real estate business, so we don’t understand the business and write the rule book. The rulebook seems to be working for us. Today we have built one of the most formidable brands in the Bombay market. We deliver all our projects at least two years ahead of schedule. Our new project will be two years and six months ahead of the RERA commitment schedule. So, we have created a solid brand.
Even in Bandra, bookings have been very strong. The reports that have come out show that we are number one in terms of sales in Bandra and Thane. It’s a fun and exciting feeling in a space with 25,000-30,000 developers.
What are consumers’ tastes and preferences towards clothing, and fashion? How resilient is the Indian textile industry because of the current focus on Make in India?
Gautam Singhania: I think the industry is shaping up well. It is labor intensive. India has 1.3 billion people and a large middle class. So there is a large domestic consumption. The latest developments in Bangladesh will play into India’s hands. India will have a good chance.
We just invested a lot of capex for capacity expansion, which is all online, and it’s perfect timing. So we have the capacity to offer customers who want to move from Bangladesh to India. Everybody, when you’re sitting in a boardroom in the US, you look east, and where do you go? India and China and people want to de-risk from China, so China plus one strategy. Our exports are increasing. Made in India, domestic consumption, it’s a great cocktail.A lot of bilateral trade happens between India and Bangladesh as well and the number that goes on is that 25% of Indians have factories or factories built in Bangladesh. He can go to India.
Gautam Singhania: We are not one of them, so we are very lucky.During these years, the period of transformation that Raymond went through, what were the biggest lessons or mistakes that you also open up about?
Gautam Singhania: If you’re going to have a 40-year career in business, you’re bound to make mistakes. At every stage, you make mistakes. At every stage, you have to learn. And there is nothing wrong with making mistakes. It is always better to learn from mistakes. If you ask me honestly, when I took over the reins of ownership of the company in 2016, we went around professionalizing the company and we were wrong. We make a lot of mistakes. We brought many advisors and to be honest, I took my eye off the ball.
Then COVID hit us and we faced a double whammy. But we won’t make that mistake again. I work 24×7, I’m an active CEO, I don’t take my eye off the ball and I think we came out of the COVID mess with grace and today, the company is in a different zone. We have three great businesses. We create shareholder value and there is no motivation like success. So, when you start having success, when you start winning, you want to win more. And today, by God’s grace, the company is in a great place and I couldn’t ask for more.
