Bata India's Q2 Quarter Results Shows Strong Recovery

Footwear major Bata India Limited today announced results for the quarter ended 30th September 2021. Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs. 6,141 million showcasing healthy and consistent recovery since the opening of lockdown. On the backdrop of consistent recovery, the Company clocked a profit before tax of Rs. 500 million as against the loss before tax of Rs. (949) million in the quarter ended June 30, 2021.

Sales building up to pre-covid levels

Since the opening of the economy and aggressive vaccination drives across the country, the Company has continued its multiple measures to ensure customer safety, consumer-relevant communication, product availability and drive channel expansion. All these have resulted in a consistent increase in footfalls across its retail outlets, along with growth seen via e-commerce platforms and expansion drive in smaller towns in Tier 3-5. Despite the prevailing uncertainties, we are looking forward to the forthcoming festive season and onwards with cautious optimism.

Focus on optimizing costs across value chain

The Company continued to optimize its retail network and look for cost-savings across rentals & operations, manufacturing, and drive efficiencies in its value chain. All the cost-focused initiatives, that had been put in place across multiple work streams have shown positive impact.

Gunjan Shah, MD and CEO - Bata India Limited, stated, “In this quarter, we expanded our reach in smaller towns by opening our 250^th Franchise store, ensuring availability in multi-brand outlets via Distribution channel and also optimized our network through right sizing and right locations. We have enhanced our portfolio in casual footwear section across categories led by Floatz and renewed range of North Star footwear. We launched a major campaign of the year — ‘Step Ahead’— along with our new collection, which is resonating well with consumers. We also focused on scaling up presence of our e-store, Bata.in, with an expanded range.

Along with channel expansion initiatives, we continued our strong focus on cost-savings measures across our network, controlling discretionary spends and enhancing productivity. These measures have laid the foundation that will help us capture the emerging consumer demand efficiently. Innovation via agile product creation, introducing new emerging digital channels, expansion in Tier 3-5 towns, and productivity enhancement will continue to be a priority along with safety of our customers and employees through robust vaccination drive.”

Key Highlights:

·         Bata continued with its retail expansion drive in tier 3-5 cities through franchise route, taking the overall tally to 270+ as on date.

·         Sales through digitally enabled services continued its momentum and contributed ~14% of total sales in the quarter.

·         The Company continued to expand Distribution Business across 49 new towns.

·         Launched 240 new lines across clusters with focus on enhanced casual portfolio including Floatz and renewed range of North Star. The exceedingly positive response is helping us pivot our portfolio towards casualization.

·         Expansion across all leading marketplaces with full range & assortment, powered via Omni- channel technology.

·         Bata India won the prestigious Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand 2021 award, as voted by consumers in the ‘footwear category’.

·         Successful vaccination of 100% of the staff with the first dose and expect double vaccination to be completed in the current quarter.

·         Our Covid Task Force continues to extend support to employees and their families across every region.