Sneaker sales drive growth for Bata

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
May 27, 2022

Footwear brand Bata India has seen high demand for its sneakers and the product category is driving growth. Bata’s sneaker segment grew by 33% in the 2022 financial year, over 20% of its average segment growth. 

“Sneakers led the growth recovery in the quarter while formal and fashion also recovered significantly,” said Bata India’s managing director and CEO Gunjan Shah, the Times of India reported. Prior to the pandemic, sneakers made up 15% of Bata’s total sales and now this has increased to 20%. The business expects this trend to continue and for sneakers to constitute an increasingly larger portion of its total sales. 
 
In the coming few financial quarters, Shah expects Bata’s sneakers to outgrow the rest of the brand’s portfolio of men’s and women’s fashion footwear, school footwear, and non-footwear products. To capitalise on the popularity of its sneaker line, Bata has launched 100 ‘Sneaker Studio’ shop-in-shops across its brick-and-mortar outlets, ET Bureau reported.  

In this financial year, Bata India plans to continue its aggressive retail expansion plan for both company-run and franchisee-run exclusive brand outlets, TNN reported. At present, the business has 1,400 company-owned outlets, over 300 exclusive brand outlets, and 250 shop-in-shops, as well as a presence in 25,000 multi-brand outlets.