Tata Int'l to open 20 footwear retail outlets by end-FY11

The global trading arm of the Tata Group, Tata International, plans to set up 15-20 exclusive footwear retail showrooms pan-India by end-this fiscal, a senior company official said today.

After the launch of its first specialty footwear store, 'TASHI' in the city today, the company envisages a chain of over 250-300 such stores in line with growth, the official said.

"Today, we set up our first store in the city. Over the next 4-5 years, we are looking at 250-300 such exclusive footwear outlets across the country," Tata International Limited's Vice-President (Retail) Deepak Deshpande told reporters after the launch.

The company would expand the chain in a phased manner with 6-8 such stores being rolled out across Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh by November, he added.

The Indian footwear retail market stands at Rs 16,000 crore -- both organised and unorganised -- and it is growing at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 15 per cent, Deshpande said.

"The unorganised sector is now getting more specialised, while within the the organised sector, the upmarket segment constitutes around Rs 4,000-crore," he said.

The company is looking to corner a good pie out of this market, Deshpande said, without divulging how much share it was looking at.

Asked about finances, he said "it is too early to talk about finances."