Woodland offers lighter walk

Woodland, footwear brand of the Aero Group, has an airier selling proposition - shoes substantially lighter than before.

It has, it says, introduced a new technology from Germany at its factory in Baddi, Himachal Pradesh, to make the shoes more "durable and steady". The result, it says, is 25-30 per cent less in weight.

The company says it had to import six machines, each costing Rs 7-8 crore, from Desma, a premier maker of shoes. "We have introduced this technology and prepared nearly 100 new designs," said Harkirat Singh, managing director. The response from customers, he says, has been very encouraging.

Another fallout is much less of hands-on work at the Baddi unit. German engineers have visited to ensure application of the more mechanised technology.

The plan is to extend this to four other factories - one at Paonta Sahib in Himachal and three in Uttarakhand.

Singh adds: "We are going to open 70 new stories in the country this financial year." Last year, it had opened another 70-odd, mainly in tier-II and tier-III cities, such as at Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.

Production at the factories had doubled last year, to six million pairs of footwear.