NEW DELHI: According to leading footwear brand Bata, in its 126 years of history, the company has operated through world wars, natural disasters, had to move headquarters a couple of times, and has seen a few pandemics. The Covid-19 outbreak brings a new set of challenges for the legacy company. TNIE got in touch with Sandeep Kataria, CEO at Bata India, to discuss how the company plans to emerge from this crisis, rationalising its reach and more. Excerpts:
Do you think there is a greater need for you and the retail industry in general to upscale online presence?
With the national lockdown and work-from-home, people will order more online, keep off from malls and the high street stores for a certain shortterm period. It may take some time for people to feel comfortable again with visiting public spaces. As such, e-commerce will emerge and come to the forefront for fashion retailers. Bata has a robust e-commerce network that delivers to over 1,300 cities and towns across India, and we are working towards further strengthening it. In addition, we sell through our partners like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, Paytm, Tata Cliq and Ajio, to name a few. E-commerce contributes over 5 per cent of our overall sales.
What has been the impact of Covid-19 on Bata India and the footwear industry?
The complete shutdown has had a severe impact, as it has been for over three weeks now, and the cascading effect of coronavirus is crippling the footwear industry as well. If you look at the footwear and the leather industry, it directly employs about 45 lakh people in 15,000 MSMEs and retail network, and a lot of them are from the economically challenged sections of the society, including 30 per cent women workforce. It is important that they are looked after all throughout the crisis.
Do you think it is a good time to rationalise your physical presence and close some shops?
It is inevitable that stores that had lower performance during the pre-Covid period will feel the impact of lower footfalls post-Covid, and we will evaluate these stores case by case. The good news for a company like Bata is that we have a very broad portfolio and are in a unique position to service the consumer needs. However, owing to the current situation, there is certainly a need for us to revisit our expansion plan.
What is the status of the supply chain, especially for imported items?
Generally, most of our manufacturing takes place inside the country. We do secure some of the raw materials from China and Vietnam for certain products. Even for those, we were able to procure local substitutes. Owing to our manufacturing units, we will soon be able to ramp up production once things are back to normal and we have the necessary permissions granted.