Woodland shifts focus online, expects sales to recover by next year

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Dec 23, 2020

Footwear and apparel brand Woodland has shifted its focus online amid the Covid-19 disruptions and expects sales to recover, on the back of strong online sales going forward.
 

The company has also decided to halt its offline expansion plan for now, as it incurred significant losses during the lockdown period.
 
With sales of its premium leather offerings slowing down, Woodland has also altered its product portfolio and focusing on low-cost offerings to increase its revenue.

“Our stores are company-owned and prolonged closure is not good for our business. With there being rules on re-opening and localised lockdowns, we were provisioning to lose out on sales for a major part of the year. Near-full opening happened around September-October and recoveries though slow is better than expected,” Harkirat Singh, managing director at Aero Club (makers of Woodland), told Businessline.
 
“Some losses in sales through physical stores have been compensated by e-commerce. Post-Covid online sales have jumped to around 19 percent, almost double of pre-Covid levels. We should be able to end the year with 60-70 percent of last year’s turnover,” Singh added.
 
Woodland entered the Indian market in 1992 and currently has over 600 company-owned stores and 5,000 multi-retail outlets across the country. The company plans to achieve sales of Rs 2,500 crore ($346.2 million) by the fiscal year 2025.