Footwear major Woodland is planning to invest around Rs 100 crore in the current fiscal to increase its own brand outlet from current 350 stores to 410 stores. The company, which entered the Chinese market recently through distribution in multibrand outlets, is planning to set up its own stores in the country in next two to three years, saida senior official from Woodland.
“We are planning to set up around 60 new stores in India, which would require an investment of around Rs 80-90 crore,” said Harkirat Singh, managing director, Woodland. The company at present has around 350 own outlets and presence through around 4,000 retailers.
“Besides, we would be expanding capacity with new technologies to produce 2 million more pairs as against our current capacity of 4-5 million pairs every year,” he added.
The company, a part of Aero Group which has been in the outdoor shoe industry for around 60 years, has production facilities in Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal, apart from manufacturing through vendors in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai. Almost 65-70 per cent of the production is through its own facility, while the rest is contributed by vendors.
As part of market expansion, the company is selling products in Middle East and has plans to enter some of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. Meanwhile, it has entered the Hong kong around three months back with distribution through multibrand outlets.
“We are looking at setting up our own stores in Hong kong and China. We would start with Hong kong in another one to two years, as a gateway to the Chinese market where we would set up our own stores in next two to three years,” added Singh.
The expansion to China would be through its foreign arm, Woodland Asia-Pacific, Singapore, and plans are to set up 5-10 stores in pilot stage. The Chinese market potential is almost three to four times bigger than the Indian market and with the regulations and the retail industry in China are changing favourably, which attracts the company to this market, he added.
While it has been focusing on outdoor shoe industry earlier, the company expects its formal, fashion and party shoe business, which it launched as Woods almost four years ago, to grow to around Rs 200-250 crore this year. The Woods business, which caters to super luxury segment with focus on women, is currently at around Rs 100-150 crore.
The company also recently launched a new line of business, Woodland Youth, to cater the teenage customers.
Besides, it is also planning to launch creams and lotions, for eyes and skin, which would protect its customers from various adverse weather conditions. It has tied up with a German company, BNS, and plans are to import the product to India. The products are ready and would be launched in September-October, this year, he added.
“At present, around 60 per cent of our total turnover is from footwear, 30 per cent from apparels and the rest of 10 per cent from accessories like backpacks and belts. Going forward, the sales of accessories will increase,” said Singh. He added that the company is looking at adding more equipments into the product basket, to act the outlets as a one stop shop for people who loves trecking.
The company, which clocked in Rs 700 crore sales last year, is expecting the sales to touch Rs 1,000 crore, this fiscal year.
