Raymond rewards dealers

Indian retail conglomerate Raymond Group recently took a group of 885 people, mainly comprising its distribution network, to the Raymond Top Dealer conference and award ceremony in Malaysia. The conference, which is held once every three years, was hosted by Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur from July 18 to 21 and organised by SOTC Holidays of India. The last event was held in 2002 in Dubai. The group took several of its subsidiary firms, including suit-fabric producer Raymond Ltd and Raymond Apparel Ltd, which owns a branded menswear portfolio. S L Pokharna, vice-president, marketing and commercial, Raymond Group, said: "The Raymond Top Dealer Conference is an event for our wholesalers, retailers and franchisees. "We took two groups totalling 885 people for three nights and four days in Kuala Lumpur. We also went to Genting for one lunch outing as part of our itinerary in Malaysia." The conference was also chosen by the company to target prospective distributors and network partners in Malaysia. During the conference, Raymond chairman and managing director Gautam Hari Singhania also announced franchisee agreements for retail garments and fabrics. "We conducted this conference at the Shangri-La during our event," said Pokharna. "We chose Malaysia because firstly we have a consumer product and secondly, because of the status of the fashion industry over there. The budget, too, suited us. "The retail sector is quite developed [in Malaysia], with so many big and established shopping malls. We have 200 malls coming up in India so we strategically chose Kuala Lumpur as we wanted to offer our distribution chain exposure to such malls. "This way, our retailers would be prepared on how to set up shops and offer certain shopping environments to consumers when malls in India come onstream," Pokharna said. In order to provide a glimpse of malls such as Mega City Mall, Times Square and others, Raymond organised a city-cum-study tour for 800 people. "The idea behind the scheduling was that our retailers needed to learn about the sales process (retailing), consumer-buying patterns in malls and setting up your shop in terms of lighting, visual merchandising and so on," said Pokharna. "Furthermore, we decided not to push 800- odd people together. Instead we divided them into two groups using more than 15 buses. We also instructed our team on giving our distribution chain separate times for city tour. This way the entire work-cum-leisure trip was organised in advance." Raymond, which booked 205 rooms at Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur, also booked rooms in the five-star Renaissance Hotel and the Hotel Nikko to accommodate its delegates "We wanted to accommodate the entire delegate group at Shangri-La. But it didn't work out due to non-availability of rooms and we had to book other hotels," said Pokharna. Grand venue Raymond booked the grand ballroom for its conference, three banquet halls in which to display its products and to use for meetings, and other smaller rooms for storage, small conferences, and a event secretariat. Shangri-La's grand ballroom is one of Malaysia's largest hotel banqueting halls and can cater for up to 1,800-odd delegates. "We were looking for a ballroom which could accommodate 1,000 people. This was chosen for our conference," said Pokharna. For its part, Tourism Malaysia said trends are changing, especially when it comes to booking accommodation and planning itineraries by big corporates from India. Mumbai-based Madhu Saliankar, marketing manager, Tourism Malaysia, said: "Previously, corporates would opt for fourstar accommodations for large incentive movements. "This year we have observed that more corporates have opted for good five-star properties for their incentive programmes. "Corporates are having more lavish cultural events or theme dinners for all incentive programmes. Corporates are also considering other destinations such as Penang or Langkawi to hold their programmes." Raymond decided not only to take popular artists (dance and music) from India, but also chefs to take care of special dietary needs. Raymond flew in specialist chefs from Mumbai to prepare the Jain community's vegetarian food. "These chefs from Mumbai had been associated with the Taj group of hotels and Le Méridien," said Pokharna. "Their services were used in Kuala Lumpur in Shangri-La and even at Sunway Lagoon, where we took 450 delegates for one dinner. "We also took a group to Genting Highlands hotel for lunch but the vegetarian food there was served by the hotel." Sunway Lagoon's inhouse artists dressed up as Hawaiian dancers and it also arranged a fireworks display. Raymond took performers from Mumbai for its cultural programme at the gala night and awards function on the last night of the conference. "There were about1,000 people and we had leading artists, such as performer Sophia Chowdhury and DJ Aqeel, to perform. "We also received assistance from Tourism Malaysia, which provided us with folkdancers for one of our cultural-cum-dinner programmes at the host hotel."