Woodland spreading its footprint in America

Woodland, the Rs 500 crore shoes and clothing brand is eyeing the North American market. The brand has chalked out plans to open 30 Woodland stores in the US and Canada by 2012. At the moment, Woodlands already has a presence in Dubai, Muscat and Doha and it supplies boots to

a few shops in North America and Europe. In America, they have a brand called White Fox, which supplies boots under their own brand. “We have stores in Dubai and are now planning to open stores in Canada and US by end of 2012,” says Amol Dhillon, VP, Strategic Planning, Aero Group of Companies manufacturers of Woodland.
Dhillon calls Woodland ‘a hardcore outdoor brand’ that’s known for its shoes, clothes, and sportswear. “We have 350 exclusive shops across India. Of these 95 per cent are company-owned and the rest are franchisees. We are in 3,000 multibrand outlets. Almost 30 per cent of our sales come from the distribution network and EBOs. MBOs contribute 65 per cent and the rest comes from large formats,” Dhillon explains. The brand, says Dhillon is growing at almost 28 per cent annually and they are opening 50 to 55 showrooms every year.
Targeted mainly at the 18 to 25 years old, Dhillon is optimistic that Woodland as a brand will become more popular as India is slowly warming up to outdoor activities. In keeping with their brand’s strategy of celebrating the outdoors, recently Woodland opened an adventure club to take people river rafting. “We have tied up with a few adventure companies across India. In Canada, we are having a skiing expedition. We also sponsored the first Indian to reach North Pole,” Dhillon says. By 2012, the brand is also planning to set up an outdoor adventure park in Chandigarh. 
Besides Woodland, Aero also has a formal, high-end fashion brand of shoes called Woods. Dhillon says, it piggyback rides on Woodland stores. “It’s a high-end fashion brand, having no connect with Woodland,” he explains. However, this month, they are opening their first exclusive Woods store in Delhi’s new DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj. “This is will help Woods take off on its own with its own identity,” Dhillon says.
Meanwhile, to reduce their carbon footprint, Woodland is rolling out an e-commerce site which will be operational in the next 45 days.