Woodland’s Woods repositioned, to focus more on women

Woodland, Aero Group's brand of shoes and now, adventure gear,

 is stepping up its efforts to target women audience. While Woodland has shoes for both men and women, it is planning to put its eight-year old brand, Woods, to work in capturing a larger share of the women's fashion market.
Woods would be re-positioned as a luxury shoe brand, mainly for women. "The luxury market has matured in India and women are spending more money," explains Managing Director Harkirat Singh. Woodland has started with exclusive stores for Woods, three of which have opened in Delhi and one each in Mumbai and Pune. "The plan is to add 12 Woods stores next fiscal. It would cost over a crore to put up each shop," says Singh, adding that the slowdown has taken a toll on the expansion plans.

The branded footwear market in India is over Rs 30,000 crores and even though the luxury segment has less than 5 per cent share, the growth is high. "This would be 10 per cent of the total branded footwear market in a couple of years," says Singh.

Singh says, Woods would be contributing about 30 per cent to the net sales of the company by then. To make the most of the existing network, shop in shops, have been created inside Woodland stores. There are about 420 Woodland stores in the country.