Woodland to open 40-50 stores by end of this year

Major footwear retailer Woodland plans to open around 50 exclusive stores by end of this year, out of which around 40 will be of their key brand Woodland and 10 will be of their premium women footwear brand Woods. The company plans to open 5-6 stores in the southern part of the country in states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, 10-15 stores in northern India, 6-7 stores in the western part and 4-5 stores in the east.

Talking on the expansion and other plans, Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland, told Retail4growth, “Woods is our latest brand which comes more under premium and luxury category and different from our age-old brand Woodland. We will strategically place Woods store, which will boast a premium store design, not in the vicinity of Woodland stores. We have come up with a lounge sort of store design concept for Woods and have already opened one store at Delhi’s high street South Extension market while the next is coming up at Promenade Mall, Vasant Kunj. However, all upcoming Woods store may not fall under the lounge category. Depending on the size of the store, 5 out of every new 10 Woods store will follow this concept.” Woodland is already retailing through 5000 leading shoe retailers in the country. On challenges faced through MBO operations, Singh pointed out, “Although our MBO business is doing very well, we face the challenge of space which leads to limited in-store advertising opportunity and keeping full stock.”