Bata has reopened 1000 of its 1400 stores across the country and it is now in “revival,” Chief Executive Officer, Sandeep Kataria said in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

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In the stores that are operational, the company is seeing divergent trends. Sales in some stores in Tier II towns are almost 70-75 percent pre-COVID levels, but sales in some stores in the metro cities and malls are just a third of what they were a year ago.

Bata is on course to open their factory in Batanagar, West Bengal this week. Kataria said low demand was a bigger issue at this point in time, than production or supply chain management.

He said the company was looking at various ways to save on costs. It has managed to renegotiate rentals for its stores with nearly 65 percent of the landlords.

On demand, Kataria said lower priced products like slippers were selling more as more people are working out of their homes. An interesting trend, was a spike in sales of the ‘Power’ brand of sports shoes, as many people seemed to be taking to fitness, Kataria said.

Bata is going slow on new store openings but will continue expanding into newer towns via the franchise route, Kataria said.

The company has also increased focus on e-commerce channels and its own website as well. Additionally, Bata is using services like WhatsApp to stay in touch with consumers and enable omnichannel sales

First Published:Jun 15, 2020 10:43 AM IST