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Mr Harkirat Singh

Virendra Pandit

Ahmedabad, Feb. 27 The Aero Group of Companies, makers of ‘Woodland’ brand of premium footwear, plans to invest nearly Rs 100 crore in 2008-09 to set up new plants and double production capacity to 20,000 shoes per day at its facilities at Dehradun (Uttarakhand) and Baddi (Himachal Pradesh).

It is importing the latest technology in a big way to set up 100 per cent robotics-based automated plants. The 12-year-old company, which recently launched its first international store in Dubai, is also adding 100 outlets to its existing 180 and plans to set-up ‘shop-in-shop’ at retail malls across India, Mr Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, told Business Line.

The company plans to achieve a growth of 35 per cent per year in sales in the next two years to achieve a turnover of Rs 500 crore, up from Rs 300 crore in 2006-07. The company is also considering strategic tie-ups and outsourcing work to some partners in the southern States.

As part of its retail expansion plan, all the new stores would be based on a larger format, with an area between 2,500 and 5,000 square feet. The company is also increasing the number of its dealers by 20 per cent to 1,600.

In the Rs 2,000-crore branded footwear market in India, Woodland’s share is about 20 per cent. The company has set up a design team from Italy to import the latest designs, targeting the youth in particular.

Woodland, a leader in the casual and premium footwear segment in India, is also consolidating its market share in the apparel segment, which contributes 40 per cent to the company’s total domestic sales.

The company plans to increase its product range in the apparel segment, both for men and women, by launching new products in the coming season. The latest addition to the Woodland product line is a range of denim jeans, jackets and waistcoats, manufactured at the Noida plant near New Delhi.

To market these, the company will now also use its dealers apart from its own exclusive showrooms.

Woodland also plans to introduce a brand for formal footwear — called ‘Woods’ — this year, and capture India’s growing market by about 50 per cent in the next three years, although the company has no plans, for now, to enter the sports-shoe segment.

As part of its branding exercise and associating its rugged brands with an adventure team of National Defence Academy (NDA), Woodland recently sponsored the team.

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