Bata sees highest ever quarterly sales in India, monitors price increases

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Aug 22, 2022

Footwear brand Bata reported its highest ever sales in the past quarter with demand up across all of its retail channels. The brand is balancing strong demand and an increasing retail footprint with keeping a handle on its prices. 

“We have posted the highest ever sales in the last quarter and we have seen demand uptick across all our different channels,” said Bata’s chief financial officer, Vidhya Srinivasan, ET Now reported. “We have seen it across multiple geographies with tier two, tier three towns showing uptick. So, that is certainly a good indicator. We are also trying to look at how customers are responding to the increase in prices and being cautious. We are trying to balance both.” 
 
Bata is continuing to expand it’s brick-and-mortar presence across India both in tier two and three towns and in metro locations. Bata’s brick-and-mortar store target is 500 stores, including franchise outlets. The brand currently has approximately 320 stores and is opening around 20 to 30 stores per quarter.

The brand is gearing its strategy towards a casualisation and premiumisation of its offering which includes, “good product stories,” according to Srinivasan. A slight price increase was necessitated by a hike in related goods and services taxes, according to the brand. However, Bata aims to balance this price increase by further diversifying its product offering to cater to a wide array of shoppers.