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After two years of modest or no growth, apparel and footwear maker Woodland — owned by Aero Club — hopes to grow by 15 per cent in FY20. It is eyeing new markets overseas, such as southern Africa.
According to Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Aero Club, growth was subdued at 8 per cent in FY19 with issues such as GST roll out taking time to settle.
The company carried out a retail rejig, including closing down unprofitable outlets. Nearly 95 per cent of Woodland’s 600-odd company-owned and -operated stores are now profitable. It also entered tier-2 and -3 markets and started experimenting with the franchisee model in select markets such as Srinagar.
Footwear still accounts for 60 per cent of the company’s turnover, with the remaining coming from apparel and accessories.
While Woodland will continue to focus on outdoor and casual wear categories, a major retail push is planned for its sub-brand, Woods in the premium formal-wear segment with standalone stores.
The company is also exploring tech-enabled accessories and is open to entering new categories such as kids-wear.
For this fiscal, we are 35-40 stores,” Singh told BusinessLine. Without sharing turnover details, he said he expects revenues of around ₹1,200 crore this fiscal.
Overseas expansion
Aero Club continues to be a partnership firm. While there are no immediate plans to switch over to a company set-up, as is the practice in the retail industry, it is likely to happen as the brand strengthens its overseas footprint.
“Perhaps in another five to six years we can explore such options. But our first priority is to expand and stabilise operations overseas. It takes time to establish overseas,” he said.
A major growth strategy for this fiscal is expansion into southern African markets such as Botswana and Namibia. “We see good potential there, and are in talks with a distributor,” said Singh.
The brand will also consolidate its position in existing overseas markets such as Russia, China and West Asia. Nearly 20 per cent of its turnover comes from overseas operations.
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