Gautam Singhania, chairman and managing director of Raymond Limited, in Mumbai on Monday. (Fotocorp)

Mumbai, Feb. 13: Raymond has forayed into the children?s apparel segment with Zapp ? its kidswear brand.

Raymond, which has already tapped the designer apparel market with Be, will set up around 12 Zapp stores in metros across the country over the next one year and the first store will be opened in Mumbai in April. The Zapp outlets will be about 3,000-4,000-sq-ft format stores.

?Kidswear is one of the fastest growing segments in the country and is a natural extension of our overall growth strategy,? said Gautam Singhania, chairman and managing director, Raymond Limited.

?With 30 per cent of the Indian population below the age of 15 and an increase in disposable income, this segment will grow rapidly in the coming years,? said Singhania.

Initially, the company will outsource the merchandise from contract manufacturers, though products will be designed and developed in close association with in-house designers, said Shreyas Joshi, president, Raymond Apparel Limited.

?We might consider manufacturing later depending on the response and sales volume generated, which will not be before a period of two years in the least. To begin with, we will start with an approximate investment of Rs 25-30 crore for the brand building exercise,? he added.

The domestic readymade garment market is worth Rs 43,000 crore and children?s wear constitutes 17 per cent at Rs 7,310 crore, of which the organised market is estimated at around Rs 500 crore.

The apparel business constitutes about 22 per cent to the overall textiles business of Raymond.

?While the apparel business is growing at a significant pace, the textiles division of the company has also been growing at a rapid momentum. Thus, the overall contribution of the apparel segment to the total business has been maintained at more-or-less the same level,? said Singhania.

Raymond Apparel is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Raymond and has Park Avenue, Parx, Manzoni, ColorPlus, Be and now Zapp in its portfolio. The company will add nine more Park Avenue stores by March and would set up five Parx stores, two Manzoni and five ColorPlus outlets in the same period.

Apart from 310 shops in the country, Raymond owns 18 stores in the overseas markets of West Asia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. ?We plan to add five more overseas stores next fiscal, mostly in West Asia,? said Joshi.