 "Brick and mortar business bigger than online, says Woodland India MD")
Woodland shoes which are known for their ruggedness, tough and wild friendly attitude, started in 1986 in Quebec, Canada. The company set its footprint in India post-liberalisation in the ’90s. The company has factories in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand in India, besides other countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, etc. It has the capacity to produce five million pairs of shoes every year.
Last year, Woodland started selling gears and accessories, such as ropes, sleeping tents, etc. Moreover, Woodland will invest Rs. 80-100 crore to set up new outlets with plans to expand into tier II and III cities this year. Currently, it has 400 outlets and plans to add 80-100 outlets this year. Forty percent of the new stores would be in smaller cities and towns.
The company will be coming out soon with in-store kiosks where customers can browse online, check the catalogue and even send a picture with the product to their friends on any social platform, before deciding to buy it.
The first such kiosk will be opened at their flagship store in Delhi in June, followed by 15 such kiosks in stores in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland India, talks to Firstbiz about adventure sports in India and how the company is building the sector by venturing into new product lines.
Excerpts from the interview:
FB: Adventure sports in India seem to be a very small sector. What made Woodland venture into it?
Woodland as a brand is all about adventure sports. Our focus has been consistent towards making this market bigger and encouraging people to use our products. While adventure sport is a very big market overseas, it is still nascent in India, almost non-existent. The number of people who go for such activities is quite few. To make adventure sports more popular, we have been on the lookout for those who are into such activities and then made them our brand ambassadors to highlight their work so as to encourage others.
FB: You started with shoes and moved on to apparels and accessories. What was the strategy behind expanding your product category?
When we started in Quebec, Canada, we were doing winter and outdoor boots. We moved the brand to India in the early ’90s. We then specialised in outdoor boots and climate averse shoes. After establishing our brand with shoes, we realized that what a customer needs in the outdoors is protection from the elements while trekking or casual climbing. So we focused on clothes.
Woodland jackets are capable of withstanding extreme weather conditions. Later, we moved on to other accessories related to adventure, like sleeping bags, backpacks, tents, walking sticks, trekking umbrellas, etc. We have incorporated a lot of technology into our products according to the needs of people who are into hardcore adventure sports and activity.
There is a trend toward adventure tours now and we felt that there would be a need for such products. We are slowly building the sector, and this is the right way to do it, as there is hardly any company who is investing in these products.
FB: What are the markets where Woodland has a strong hold?
This is more of an urban kind of requirement and that too it’s mostly the youth who have the time and money to spend on it. We focus on metros and mini metros, where there are more foreign tourists coming in search of such experiences in India. Earlier, urban and mini metros were our focus, but over a period of time, we have realised that smaller towns are growing up because markets are getting developed and people are becoming aware of brands. It’s easier to market our products now. We will now venture into district-level towns, too.
FB: How big is your overseas business? How is it compared to your market in India?
It is growing for us since we went into markets like Asia Pacific, south-east Asia, Middle East, etc. But right now the major chunk is India. Around 75 percent of our business comes from India and the rest from foreign markets.We are growing at about 30 percent every year in India. Asia Pacific and Middle East markets are doing really well.
FB: How is the growth of online sales compared to retail outlets?
Since the last three years we have seen a serious growth from our e-commerce sales, especially from our own website. We partner with other online retailers like Flipkart, Amazon, etc. But you can’t compare that growth with the brick and mortar businesses. Over the next five years, it (online) will be a major chunk of our overall business, for sure. People have overcome their fear of trying out the product first, so that has helped our e-commerce business grow. A lot of new entrants in the retail sector have opened the chain of sale for us. When Amazon and Walmart came to India, they gave us huge orders, beefing up demand.