Mumbai, 3rd November 2021: Footwear major Bata India Limited today announced results for the quarter ended 30th September 2021. Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs. 6,141 million showcasing healthy and consistent recovery since opening of lockdown. On the backdrop of consistent recovery, the Company clocked a profit before tax of Rs. 500 million as against the loss before tax of Rs. (949) million in the quarter ended June 30, 2021.
Sales building up to pre-covid levels
Since the opening of the economy and aggressive vaccination drives across the country, the Company has continued its multiple measures to ensure customer safety, consumer relevant communication, product availability and drive channel expansion. All these have resulted in a consistent increase in footfalls across its retail outlets, along with growth seen via e-commerce platforms and expansion drive in smaller towns in Tier 3-5. Despite the prevailing uncertainties, we are looking forward to the forthcoming festive season and onwards with cautious optimism.
Continuous focus on optimizing costs across value chain
The Company continued to optimize its retail network and look for cost-savings across rentals & operations, manufacturing, and drive efficiencies in its value chain. All the cost-focused initiatives, that had been put in place across multiple work streams have shown positive impact.
Gunjan Shah, MD and CEO – Bata India Limited, stated:
“In this quarter, we expanded our reach in smaller towns by opening our 250th Franchise store, ensuring availability in multi-brand outlets via Distribution channel and also optimized our network through right sizing and right locations. We have enhanced our portfolio in casual footwear section across categories led by Floatz and renewed range of North Star footwear. We launched a major campaign of the year — ‘Step Ahead’— along with our new collection, which is resonating well with consumers. We also focused on scaling up presence of our e-store, Bata.in, with an expanded range.
Along with channel expansion initiatives, we continued our strong focus on cost-savings measures across our network, controlling discretionary spends and enhancing productivity. These measures have laid the foundation that will help us capture the emerging consumer demand efficiently. Innovation via agile product creation, introducing new emerging digital channels, expansion in Tier 3-5 towns, and productivity enhancement will continue to be a priority along with safety of our customers and employees through robust vaccination drive.”
Key Highlights:
· Bata continued with its retail expansion drive in tier 3-5 cities through franchise route, taking the overall tally to 270+ as on date.
· Sales through digitally enabled services continued its momentum and contributed ~14% of total sales in the quarter.
· The Company continued to expand Distribution Business across 49 new towns.
· Launched 240 new lines across clusters with focus on enhanced casual portfolio including Floatz and renewed range of North Star. The exceedingly positive response is helping us pivot our portfolio towards casualization.
· Expansion across all leading marketplaces with full range & assortment, powered via Omni- channel technology.
· Bata India won the prestigious Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand 2021 award, as voted by consumers in the ‘footwear category’.
· Successful vaccination of 100% of the staff with the first dose and expect double vaccination to be completed in the current quarter.
· Our Covid Task Force continues to extend support to employees and their families across every region.
About BATA India:
Bata has held a unique place in the hearts of Indians for more than 85 years. Probably the only footwear brand that offers footwear and accessories for the entire family, Bata has redefined the modern footwear industry in India. It has established a leadership position in the industry and is the most-trusted name in branded footwear. It sold more than 47 million pairs of footwear and served 120,000-plus customers almost every day in 2019.
Bata India is the largest footwear retailer in India, offering footwear, accessories and bags across brands such as Bata, Bata Red Label, Hush Puppies, Naturalizer, Power, Marie Claire, Weinbrenner, North Star, Scholl, Bata Comfit and Bubble gummers, to name a few. It retails in more than 1700 Bata own, shop-in-shops and franchisee stores, on bata.in and in thousands of multi-brand footwear dealer stores pan-India. To make its products accessible to millions of Indians, Bata has evolved its channels and has launched new channels like Bata Chat Shop, Bata Home Delivery and Bata Store-on-Wheels for neighborhood communities.
Follow on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/industrialpunch) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/IndustrialPunch) for updates on social media…
