Woodland plans to double export revenue to 50% in 3-4 years

Outdoor adventure shoes maker, Woodland, plans to expand its reach in the overseas market to double the export revenue in the next 3-4 years.

Aero Club, which makes and markets the Woodland brand of shoes, has laid down plans to increase its business from exports by strengthening its presence in the markets such as Commonwealth Independent States (CIS)-Russia, China and West Asia.

Speaking to

BusinessLine , Managing Director, Harkirat Singh, said, "Currently, we are exporting to markets such as Asia-Pacific and East Europe and get about 25 per cent of the revenues from exports. The domestic market contributes about 75 per cent to the revenues. But in the next 3-4 years, we look to increase our export revenue to 50 per cent."

Singh further stated that the company has a steady export growth and going forward, China, Russia and West Asia will emerge as key markets for the company.

"Entering into China is a big challenge. We are understanding the market and we have seen that the potential is five times more than what is there in India. We are making slow but steady progress there," he added.

The company produces about 3 million pairs of footwear and 2.5 million pairs of apparel at its multiple facilities across India. It has planned an investment of Rs 50-60 crore towards network expansion and partly for capacity addition.

Luxury segment drives growth

For the financial year 2017-18, Aero Club’s revenue stood at about Rs 1,300 crore, in which the newly introduced Woods category of luxury footwear segment has 20-25 per cent share.

"We have seen good growth of Woods segment, which is a fashion, premium and luxury product for men and women. In India, we are setting up about 10 exclusive Woods outlets across the country besides the four that is located at 4 metro cities," Singh said.

Woods stores are opened at metros such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru, while the company is eyeing smaller towns, where the propensity to spend is high.

He stated that the roll-out of GST had contained the growth last year, but the markets have stabilised now and there is an upward movement seen during the last three-four months. Also for its Woodland stores, the company plans to add 30-40 stores this year.

Meanwhile, Aero Club is also gearing up its online sales as it has seen the share of online revenues more than double from 6 per cent three years ago to about 15 per cent now.