India Footwear Chain of Stores – Review

There is a huge potential for growth in the India for footwear chains. Changing preference of younger generation toward international quality footwear will bring a paradigm shift in the Indian footwear market. With the increase in disposable income and brand awareness, footwear market is gradually turning into a brand-driven market. The taste of Indian consumers is gradually shifting towards casual and younger styles.
The footwear retail in India is dominated by men’s footwear. There exists a huge potential for the exclusive ladies and kids footwear segment.

Existing Footwear Chains – Domestic:
There are around 20-25 big footwear retailers. Woodlands, Bata, Action, Liberty, Khadim’s, M&B Footwear, Crocs, Adidas, Puma, Reebok, Reliance Footprint are leading footwear chains in India. There are many smaller ones like Metro operating in just couple of cities and is beyond the scope of our research.

Bata India Ltd: Bata has 1200 outlets. It is planning to open 240 new outlets across the country over a period of three years. It would adopt the franchisee model in opening the new outlets. Out of 1200 outlets, 143 are franchisee owned. Bata is looking for space in malls for new outlets.

Woodlands: The brand Woodland was introduced to the Indian market in 1992 through two exclusive outlets in New Delhi. At present, there are 200 exclusive Woodland stores across the India in addition to a distribution network covering over a thousand stores across the country.

Reliance Footprints: A specialty footwear store offering formal and sports wear in men, women and children’s footwear, was launched in Hyderabad and Bangalore. They launched another Footprint store in New Delhi.

Action: Action Shoes has more than 50,000 [Update: presence in 5,000] retail outlets all over India. Action also has exclusive showrooms in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Khadim’s: Khadim India Limited forayed in footwear retailing in 1993. it has more than 260 Exclusive stores out of which 52 are owned by the company and the remaining are exclusive dealers are located across 22 states.

Liberty: Liberty Shoes Ltd. has more than 365 retail stores across India. Liberty markets
its products are the network of 150 distributors, 350 exclusive showrooms.

M & B Footwear: Delhi-based M&B Footwear has 75 stores including 26 exclusive concept stores located in premium malls and high streets and 6 shop-in-shop modules placed within Central and Pantaloons. The company’s brand portfolio comprises of Lee Cooper, ID, Provogue, Geox, Firangi, Rider and MB Sports. The company has plan to open 100 store by 2008 and take it to 275 stores by 2010.

Red Tape: Red Tape is the flagship brand of Mirza International. It was launched in 1996. Red Tape retail products through multiple brand outlets, chain stores and exclusive Red Tape showrooms. Its countrywide network of exclusive showrooms spans 30 cities in India.

Existing Footwear Chains – International / MNCs:

Crocs India: It is a US footwear brand, launched in India in 2007. At present, the company
retail products through 500 stores across India & also selling through 5 company owned stores in metros like, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Gurgaon.

Adidas: German sportswear and apparel major Adidas is planning for a major expansion across India in 2008, which would involve setting up around 160 new stores. Post the planned expansion, Adidas would have 450 franchise stores and presence in 140 cities as against 119 cities currently.

Nike: Nike entered into India through a seven year license agreement with Sierra Industrial Enterprise. In 2004, Nike Inc formed its 100 per cent subsidiary, Nike India. Nike has 1,000 retail outlets including exclusive stores and shop-in-shop.

Reebok: Reebok India is planning to expand its retail presence in India by the end of 2008. The number of exclusive Reebok stores is expected to go up from 675 to 800 by December 2008. The company has plan to tap tier II and Tier III cities. Reebok is planning to add 55 new lifestyle stores by the end of this year.

Carlton London: UK’s shoe brand Carlton London operates 7 stores in Ludhiana, Gurgaon,
Noida, New Delhi.

It will be an uphill task for Indian retailers to establish private labels especially in the Sportshoe segment as Indians are always crazy about Global brands. However, this is not an impossible task but MNC retailers have already captured the big chunk of market by innovative retail business practices in India.