The year for apparel and footwear brand Woodland was good in 2016 and 2017 in compare to previous years 2014-15. Outdoor products such as jackets and boots contributed well given the winter season and discount.
Woodland’s revenue target for the year 2015- 16 was between Rs 1350-1400 crore but demonetisation has made a big impact and the sportswear brand couldn’t achieve the target as the month of November and December were slow. The store business of the brand didn’t get affected because of credit card sales but the distribution channel was impacted in different parts of the country. The distribution channel is still affected and improving slowly.
Sharing his target for the next year, Harkirat Singh, MD, Woodland, said, “We will be conservative; we will keep the target at least 1400 crore. We normally grow 15-20 per cent year-on-year.”
Currently, Woodland has 600 stores across the country and planning to open 50-60 new stores this year. The sportswear brand is not planning to go to very smaller towns as their distributors will be affected. The company owned stores have a long range of products other than shoes.
When asked how he sees the growth coming from non -metros and e-commerce retailers, Singh replied, “I see is that growth is overall. When the e-commerce came in, the retailers were jittery that online sales will affect them. There was a disturbance for a year or two but it came back. Today online sales are also growing with the consolidation of Flipkart and Jabong, and Amazon going strong.”
He added, “There is another channel of key stores like Reliance, Metro shoes and Central who are also growing every year. They project the brand very well and give us certain space. That is an organised retail which is growing and people in small towns are also trying various areas of growth. There is definitely a demand in tier-2 and tier-3 and especially the youth who are looking for brands and going to malls where are like brands are available. They go for shopping frequently since brands are available nearly.
The brand is selling their products in offline mode from last 25 years and forayed into online sales four years back. Currently, they are selling around 14 per cent of their stock online.
Woodland has differentiated between offline and online sales. The group has created new fresh lines for both the platform as they received complaints from distributors and retailers with the same product being available at a good discount online. Woodland is expecting the offline and online ratio to be 60:40 respectively in coming few years.
Woodland’s biggest competitor, Timberland, the maker of hiking shoes and outdoor gear shuts its shops in 2015. Currently, Woodland is seeing some competition from the retail chain Decathlon. Singh feels there is some overlapping in the products.
Decathlon is a big retailer which is easier to buy and do a lot of products like outdoor shoes and outdoor wear. But they are not very specific. We are more focused on a certain category and we are doing more up the market with more quality issues.
Business Abroad Woodland has launched a company called Woodland Asia-pacific which looks after all the Asia pacific countries. They already selling in Hong Kong and neighbouring countries for the last 6-7 years.
In China, Woodland has tied up with one of the biggest retailers, Okang. Both the retailers have planned to do something jointly for smooth entry in each other’s countries. Woodland will be available in 150 stores of Okang and Okang will present in 40 stories in India as well.
BW Reporters
The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld. He primarily covers Retail, Media & Entertainment and Travel & Tourism sectors
