Woodland to increase export volumes, to add 50 new India stores

By

Maverick Martins

Published
Jan 2, 2017

Outdoor adventure brand Woodland is looking to broad base its presence in India and also increase export volumes to consolidate sales post demonetisation.

The company plans to set up 50 more stores and take its export volumes up 30 percent in the coming years.

“The sales volumes have been impacted by about 15-20 per cent post the demonetisation. We expect business to get back to normalcy in the first quarter of 2017,” Harkirat Singh, Managing Director of Woodland told the Hindu Businessline.

Good thing about the adventure sports category is that a major chunk of sales is through digital payments, be it in brick-and mortar-stores or online sales — the latter now accounts for about 15 per cent of total business volumes.

“Outdoor sports products and gear is a growing segment, and we have meticulously expanded to a network of company-owned stores of over 600 in the country. We expect to add another 50 stores next year.”

Referring to the company’s exports, Singh said: “About 20 per cent of business comes from exports. The mix of domestic sales versus exports is currently in the ratio of 80:20, and Woodland is consciously trying to increase the contribution of exports. Four-five years from now, we hope to make it a 50:50 business,” he added.

Founded in Quebec, Canada, over twenty five years ago, Woodland is a premium brand of outdoor shoes and apparels in India owned by the Aero Group. The brand has a presence in more than 4800 multi-brand outlets globally.