Raymond, the iconic branded fabric and fashion retailer clearly influenced by automation developments in countries like China and Europe, where robots are increasingly replacing human beings, Raymond has made decision to embraced automation in a massive way, sending shock waves across the legendary textile industry in India.

In a landmark decision to cut costs, and increase efficiency, they have decided to replace 10,000 employees with robots. This incredible transformation will be implemented across the next 3 years.

At Raymond, there are 30,000 employees working in 16 manufacturing plants across India. By reducing 33% of its workforce, Raymond is sending a strong signal across various manufacturing verticals in the country.

A company like Raymond, which is as old as the textile industry itself, controlling 60% of Indian textile manufacturing, adopts automation, then it means that the scare is real.

Raymond CEO Sanjay Behl said that roughly 2,000 work in each plant. Through technological intervention they are looking to scale down the number of jobs to 20,000, through multiple initiatives in technology. One robot could replace around 100 workers. While it is happening in China at present, it will also happen in India.

In China, Foxconn has already decided to replace 60,000 employees with robots, and the trend is now sweeping across all manufacturing niches.

It had been predicted that textile industry in India may lose around 70 lakh jobs in the next few years but had not predicted the swiftness with which this turnaround will hit India.