Retailers can't run from inflationary pressure: Raymond

Noel Tata isn't the only one warning against rising input cost. Raymond's chairman and managing director Gautam Singhania says inflationary pressure is a reality that retailers have to face.

"If cotton prices are going to go up 60 to 70% in the last year, if you have another incident of excise duty, plus all other inflationary measures whether it is transport or whatever. Every input cost has gone up, it is going to be inflationary. But that's reality and you can't run away from that," Gautam Singhania Chairman & MD, Raymond. Cotton prices have surged due to strong demand, and as floods damaged crops in China and Pakistan. The price of Shankar-6 variety of raw cotton, for instance, has more than doubled in the past one year to a record of around Rs 61,000 per candy in the local market. Raymond