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In a bid to change its image from a conservative footwear firm to a stylish-youth centric diversified firm, Bata India is looking at giving a push to its non-footwear business as it aims to clock 10% of total turnover from the category by next calender year.
"Non-footwear business is small category for us right now but we see it growing significantly in the coming years. We have added new product categories this year to increase our non-footwear business and expect it to contribute 10% to our total turnover," Bata India Group Managing Director Rajeev Gopalakrishnan told PTI.
Bata reported turnover of Rs 1,841 crore in the calender year 2012.
Non-footwear business of Bata includes bags, belts, sunglasses, scarves and caps.
Bata India will also focus on tapping fast growing women's category as it looks to register double digit growth in net profit during this calender year.
"Women's category is growing at a very fast pace, up to 40% annually. We look at tapping this segment. We will launch more products, footwear and non-footwear, to achieve our growth targets. We will register double digit growth. At present, women's category contributes about 25-28% to overall sales," Gopalakrishnan said.
Elaborating on the strategy, he said: "We have seen sudden boom in the women's category. Earlier, say five years back this category was growing at just 10% annually."
The company will open up to 35 standalone or concept stores of Hush Puppies, its in house brand Footin and Bubblegummers and Weinbrenner next year, Gopalakrishnan said.
As of now Bata India has 10 Footin Stores and 33 Hush puppies stores but it does not have any standalone store for Bubblegummers and Weinbrenner.
The company will make investment of up to Rs 100 crore this year to modernise its factories and open new stores.
