Woodland entered into India in 1992 when the Indian footwear market was largely unorganized. The brand created a new category of specialized ‘outdoor adventure sports’ shoes. Their product positioning was different and they were known as a rugged, outdoor leather shoe brand, the kind usually preferred by adventurists. The youth took fancy to their shoes and they gradually developed a product line especially for India. Since then they have never looked back. The success of their shoes encouraged them to enter into new segments like clothes, handbags, and the likes.
Last year, the brand clocked Rs 1,200 crore in revenue. Woodland has been steadily growing about 20-25 percent and hoping to achieve the consistent growth in upcoming years as well.
Woodland product range includes apparels, shoes and accessories for men and women and outdoor equipment like tents, sleeping bags, waterproof outdoor backpacks and products associated with adventure travels and sports.
Currently, Woodland has a chain of over 600 company-owned stores and presence in over 5,000 multi-retail outlets in the country. Globally, the brand is present in more than 40 countries. At present, the brand has 600 plus EBOs, 5,000 plus MBOs and 500 plus SISs.
Elaborating on the growth targets, Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland says, “We are planning to set up 30-35 more stores this year majority of which will be in Tier I, II & III cities. We have recently expanded our business in collaboration with Aokang International to enter China. During the initial stage we will start selling through 150 Aokang outlets. We are planning similar collaborations in some South African countries and Canada. E-commerce has slowly grown to be a big component of our sales. The company’s portal and other e-commerce sites equally contribute to the e-commerce sales revenues, thereby adding to volumes. Moreover, Woodland has a different set of merchandise for the e-commerce companies and this is exclusively available in those sites.”
He further adds, “We are planning to open more EBOs across India. We are planning to add another 60 stores in this financial year that would be an equivalent combination of small towns and metros. Woodland as a brand is also present in international market for quite some time. We are currently working on entering into more foreign countries in near future to add to the kitty of our International presence. We are working on strengthening our presence in South-East Asia, West Asia, Europe and the US. We are expecting to generate good revenue by the end of this financial year.”
Growing the Omnichannel way is the future as Harkirat Singh talks about his plans, “Our online sales are growing at a faster rate and we expect it to grow to 40 percent in three to four years. We plan to concentrate more on a seamless approach through all available shopping channels, i.e. mobile internet devices, computers, bricks-and-mortar, television, radio, direct mail, catalog, in-store experience and so on. Our EMI scheme for online sales has proved very beneficial for us. It is one of the prime reasons for the growth of our online sales. Soon after is launch, it generated a tremendous response from our customers. Nearly 15 percent of our sales are now through this scheme.”
