Bata India Ltd. is reigning over the footwear business and market of India with a pervasive worldwide intervention. Having a continuously expanding and enriched wholesale and retail network, Bata India Ltd. is manufacturing footwear for several categories such as men, women, kids, youth and sports along with accessories including a purse, belt, bags etc. irrespective of gender and age.
Plenty of brands are there under which the company sells its products. Bata, Marie Claire, Footin, Hush Puppies, Scholl, Bata Comfit, North Star, Bubblegummers, Weinbrenner etc. are eminent among those brands. There are around 1,375 retail stores, for the business operation of the company.
The name of the company was replaced by Bata India Limited in 1973, more than four decades after its inception in 1931 as Bata Shoe Company Private Limited. The company is headquartered at Gurgaon, Haryana in India. This is a subsidiary company of Bata (BN) B.V.
The company started its journey as Bata Shoe Company Pvt Ltd in 1931 at Konnagar West Bengal, although soon was shifted to Bengal’s Batanagar which is the nation’s first shoe manufacturing facility to be certified with ISO 9001. The company became a public limited in 1973. From January 2001, the company started to enter into an agreement with Bata Limited of Toronto, Canada for the support in several spheres such as footwear technology, product development, brand development and information systems for a tenure of ten years.
In Indian Retail Summit 2006, the company was awarded as Retailer of the Year in the footwear category for the Reid and Taylor Award for Retail Excellence, just a year before of receiving nation’s most prestigious retail award as Most Admired Brand in footwear section at Images Retail Awards in 2007. The company was honoured by AMITY Corporate Excellence Award in February 2008.
Having an area of 3000 square feet on an average, 69 new stores were launched by the company in 2009. Besides that, 40 stores were renovated to give a modern, stylish and comfortable outlook while 73 older stores were shut down for being less-spacious and unviable. CNBC Awaaz praised the company with Consumer Awards 2010 as the nation’s Most Preferred Retailer in 2010.
An agreement for technical collaboration, assuring Bata India to be provided comprehensive guidance on marketing, footwear technology, R&D, quality control, brand development, layout & designing, risk management etc., took place between the company and Global Footwear Services Pte. Ltd., Singapore for a tenure of ten years, from January 2011. The company, to enhance its consumer base among youth, introduced Footin—a new retail concept in 2012. On December 2014, Way Finders Brands Limited, a solely owned subsidiary was introduced by the company.
A vivid emphasis upon the modernization of manufacturing along with the up-gradation of entire business functioning resulted as the introduction of several new designs of comfortable as well as affordable footwear along with the launch of 26 spacious and stylish new stores all over the country in 2015-16. The capital expenditure in 2015-16 was summed up to Rs.794.41 million whereas the same amounted to Rs.1538.77 million in 2014-15.
During the financial tear of 2016-17, Bata India adopted a strategic plan to gain international recognition through introducing Hush Puppies, the brand eminent for its quality, comfort and style, as an International Premium Lifestyle Casual Footwear brand. The company implemented managerial strategies to resolve all the labourer disputes in the same period at its manufacturing units at Bangalore and Hosur at Tamil Nadu.
In 2017-18, the company focused upon the younger generation consumers and hence took the strategy to introduce Signature Collection, a contemporary and stylish collection of shoes, designed for the young generation. Along with occupying the leading position in the Indian footwear industry, the total income of Bata India has been increased from Rs.2680 crores in FY 2017-18 to Rs.2997 crore in FY 2018-19. The net sales have faced the increase too, from Rs.2629 crores to Rs.2928 crores on FY 18 and FY 19 respectively.
How Bata India Ltd, is categorised as Leather Sector, and Leather/Synthetic Products Industry :
The Leather/Synthetic Products industry in India accounts for about 12.9% of the world’s leather production of hides/skins. It also handles a healthy annual production of around three bn sq Ft. of leather. The nation accounts for 9% of the world’s footwear production. The Leather industry is one of the top ten foreign exchange earners in the nation and also it is known for its persistence in high export profits.
Bata India Ltd is categorised as Leather Sector, and Leather/Synthetic Products Industry. The Leather sector includes companies that deals with imports and exports of leather and companies that manufacture leather products and markets and distributes it. Leather sector is a labour-intensive sector which has a massive potential to create jobs and also earn foreign exchange for the country. At present, Europe accounts for around 70 per cent of leather exports from India. The sector alone accounts for 42 lakh people.
Bata India Ltd, Competitors and Sector Peers:
Atlanta Devcon Ltd. SEAGLO
Bhartiya International Ltd. BHAINL
Euro Leder Fashions Ltd. EURLED
KRM International Ltd. KRMINT
Lawreshwar Polymers Ltd. LAWPOL
Liberty Shoes Ltd. LIBSHO
Mallcom (India) Ltd. MALIN
Mayur Leather Products Ltd. MAYLEA
Mirza International Ltd. MIRINT
Montari Leather Ltd. MONLEA
Phoenix International Ltd. PHOINT
Presidency Shoe International Ltd. PRESHO
Pretto Leather Industries Ltd. PRELEA
Ramco Super Leathers Ltd. RAMSUP
Relaxo Footwears Ltd. RELFOO
Sarup Industries Ltd. SARTAN
Somplast Leather Industries Ltd. SOMLEA
Super Tannery Ltd. SUPTAN
Unimode Overseas Ltd. UNIOVE
Welterman International Ltd. WELINT
Worldwide Leather Export Ltd. WORLEA