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Woodland, a footwear, performance apparel, and outdoor gear company, intends to increase production capacity and open 10 new stores by the end of FY23. Harkirat Singh, MD, Aero Club (maker of Woods and Woodland brands), said the company would invest ₹50-70 crore annually in capacity expansion and new store additions.
“We invest on average between ₹2 crore and ₹3 crore to build a 2,000 sq ft store. While we initially plan to open 10 locations, we’ll eventually revert to our previous pattern of adding 30–40 outlets annually,” said Singh.
Woodland will continue to concentrate on metros and mini-metros for opening the new stores. “Because we don’t currently have a market in tier-3 or tier-4, we do not intend to expand to those cities. We go to the places where our dealers and distributors are already established,” Singh said.
The company says it expects to increase this year’s turnover to above pre-Covid levels. In FY22, Woodland posted ₹850 crore in revenue, while during pre-Covid the business was at ₹1,200 crore.
Manufacturing capacity
Singh stated that in total, the company can produce eight million pairs of shoes and clothing annually if the capacity of the current factories is used to its full potential. “This is without building any additional plants. We are now using roughly 60 per cent of our installed capacity, which we will ramp up operations to utilise our entire capacity,” he added.
Currently, the company manufactures close to 2.5 to 3 million pairs of shoes and 3 million pairs of garments every year. Woodland has 18 factories located in Punjab, Noida, Uttarakhand, and other parts of the northern region. Of the total units, 10 are dedicated to manufacturing footwear, while the rest are focused on manufacturing apparel and accessories, including backpacks, pens, wallets, socks, and more. Additionally, it also sources its goods from other factories.
Price hike
On price hike, Singh explained that the company has been careful while raising prices due to market sensitivity. “We increased the prices by 5 per cent to 10 per cent. However, my raw material and finished product costs went up by 30 per cent. There are constant fluctuations in the prices of the raw materials, and one has to be careful about increasing the prices.”
Currently, Woodland has 550 exclusive stores and employs about 6,000–7,000 people across stores. In addition to its own stores, its products are also available in around 8,000 multi-outlets in the country.
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