Eyeing untapped markets, Bata to enter smaller towns

Bata India is aggressively penetrating into footwear markets of Tier III and IV cities in order to reach out to consumers in untapped markets, a company official said on Tuesday.
“We are aggressively penetrating into the footwear markets of tier III and IV towns and have increased our focus to improve the performance of the single town Bata stores,” company Chairman Uday Khanna told shareholders at the 84th annual general meeting here.
He also said the footwear retail industry in India was accelerating and it provided immense scope for the company to reach out to different kinds of consumers in untapped markets of semi-urban and rural areas.
Khanna said the footwear major had adopted a dual strategy of driving same store growth while adding new retail stores in malls, high street locations.
“The changing customer expectations, technological advancement and rise in fashion conscious youngsters have given a new business dimension to the footwear industry,” said Khanna.
“A majority of our population is still living in rural areas and we wish to seize this opportunity by rapidly increasing our presence,” he added.
Bata, held their Annual General Meeting for the year 2017 in the presence of all their directors, at Kalamandir in Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
The conclusion of the AGM saw Bata announcing its financial results for the company’s FY 16-17. Turnover and profit before exceptional items and tax stood at Rs 2,497.2 crore and Rs 255.2 crore, respectively.
Speaking on the occasion, President-South Asia, Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, said, “It gives me immense pleasure to share with you an update on the overall performance of the company during 2016-17. Bata India Limited continues to be the market leader in the organized footwear segment. As our customers become more and more demanding and the marketplace gets increasingly crowded, we have realized that our best bet for winning is by offering a great product. And so for the past year we have singularly focused on the strategy of ‘Product is king’!”
He further added, “We have actively mapped the consumer preferences, fashion trends and demands to the right target audiences through our over 1,290 retail stores across 500 cities in India. Our offerings are becoming more contemporary with comfort and wow pricing as strong differentiators Now we are at the stage, even globally, where we are focusing on evolving Bata the brand and to encompass style and fashion very intrinsically as well. At the product level our women focus is supported through our latest Bata Insolia range of heels, with technology that enables women to ‘walk taller, walk further’. Last one year saw all of us at Bata constantly evolving with the changing times. We will continue to try and keep this journey as successful as it has been in the legacy spanning more than eight decades.”