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Known as the makers of tough shoes for outdoor adventures, Woodland is now eyeing the scope in adventure sports gear. The company's retail outlets will soon start selling tents, ropes, sleeping bags, and even cameras and mountain bikes for trekkers and adventurers.
Woodland was born when the Indian exporter, Aero Group, bought its erstwhile customer, a bankrupt Quebec-based company, in the late 1980s. However, in those pre-liberalisation days, Aero Group chose to export the products to European countries such as Russia which took a shine to its sturdy boots for extreme cold weather. It was only in 1992, after liberalisation, that Woodland entered India with a new line of shoes to suit the climate. It differentiated early-on as a rugged, leather shoe brand for outdoor use, then an untended new category.
While it started with shoes for men's outdoor activities (with taglines such as 'leather that weathers'), it extended to apparels and accessories, both for men and women.
"When we came to India, we wanted to promote footwear for the outdoors, which did not exist at that time. The target was the youth, who were 17-25 years old and connected instantly with adventure," says Harkirat Singh, managing director, Woodland. A generation, growing up on Woodland's marketing, store locations (high streets and malls) and pricing (premium) in urban India, has ensured the brand remains aspirational.
Woodland went through an arduous route to get its retailing right. With a dearth of organised retailers in the early-nineties, the company joined hands with some established retail footwear brands like Bata and Corona. But Singh recalls, "This did not go well, as both the companies were not keen on other brands. They wanted to sell their own brands. Smaller retailers were unable to sell all the designs, required longer credit periods, and lacked organised payment models. We had to come up with a new strategy, which was Woodland's branded retail outlets."
While the first exclusive Woodland Shoes store was launched in 1996, the company now gets around Rs 550 crore in annual revenue from its 400 standalone stores. The rest of the Rs 850-crore revenue comes from Woodland's international sales and the 4,000 multi-brand stores that stock its products in India. It started from the north, moved to west and then the south, before catering to the east of India. Plans are afoot to open 65-70 more stores with an investment of Rs 100-150 crore. The company claims its revenue has been growing at 20-25 per cent over the last few years.
Exclusive stores have worked in the brand's favour because they allow for an expansive display when other organised retailers are not able to showcase more than four-five of its designs. These will form the bedrock of its foray in adventure gear.
Woodland's urban base is reflected in the 65-per-cent share of its revenue that tier I cities have, while tier II and III cities bring in about 35 per cent. "We expect the same to be 50:50 in the next two-three years," says Singh.
It might make sense for the brand to finally extend to adventure gear as a growing number of urban audience choose outdoor activities for quick getaways from their daily drills. Singh claims Woodland enjoys 80-85 per cent market share in adventure footwear, which is 5 per cent of the Rs 20,000-crore branded footwear market.
To tap the outdoor activities market, the company will launch creams and lotions, to protect eyes and skin in adverse weather, under the Woodland brand. The products will be imported and sold from September, this year. But more importantly, Singh reminds,"We are also planning to sell cameras, mountain bikes (which will be sold through the company's flagship stores and its e-commerce venture), sleeping bags, tents and ropes." While most of its shoes and apparels are still manufactured in-house, the company plans to tie up with others to diversify into these categories. While for its skincare line, it has reportedly tied up with the German BNS, it will source cameras from the US-based GoPro. It is expected to co-brand the bikes.
Singh says the company spends 8-10 per cent of its earnings on promotions and hopes to increase it to 15 per cent as competition increases. With single-brand FDI norms being revised, brands such as the US-based Timberland, are likely to get more bullish. Timberland has been present in India through a license cum distribution agreement with Reliance Brands since 2009.
Woodland has placed its communication bets carefully. Apart from advertising in traditional media, like any specialised category brand, it has its own 'Woodland Ambassadors' to endear itself to the small but growing community of users. "Our ambassadors, including both veterans and adventure enthusiasts, define the limits of what is possible," says Singh.
The brand ambassadors include Sano Babu Sunuwar (the winner of National Geographic's 2012 Adventurers of the Year award for making the ultimate descent: Climbing Mount Everest, paragliding down its slope and then kayaking to the sea), Barbara Holzer (with 1,500 jumps to her name, she is a world-renowned sky-diving expert), Archana Sardana (the first Indian woman to earn her civilian B.A.S.E Jumper status and a certified skydiver) and Malaika Vaz (surfer, who travelled extensively from Antarctica to the Arctic).
But is the company restricting its visibility by targetting trekkers, and missing out on a larger section of youth by eschewing other sports? Singh says, "It is true that associating with IPL or other sports will extend the reach of the brand, but we want to focus on what we are strong in - ie. the environment and outdoors."
The company has also weaved in feedback from its ambassadors to launch new products. Based on mountaineer, Loveraj Dharmshaktu's feedback, it has developed a jacket which allows the user to charge a cellphone or emergency lights for eight hours. It has a solar panel on the shoulder-line (back of the jacket). The panel absorbs sunlight and chargers of various handheld devices can be connected to it on an adventure trip.
