Sara Soule plans to expand Ruosh outlets

Bangalore-based shoe exporter Sara Soule Pvt Ltd plans to expand its Ruosh men's footwear retail chain by March next year and sign up with a couple of multi-brand outlets and online retailers, a senior company official said here Wednesday.

"We plan to have anything between 17-20 Roush outlets by March 2014. We will also retail our products through multi-brand footwear outlets and online retailers," Mohini Binepal, head, business-retail Ruosh, said.

Declining to share any sales figures relating to Ruosh, Binepal said the investment required per store is around Rs.4 million.

Presently the Rs.270-crore-turnover Sara Soule has eight Ruosh stores.

Agreeing that many of the shoe exporters have not notched great success in their domestic retail foray, Binepal said: "Our focus is on value proposition to our customers while others looked at the business as mere distribution network."

According to Binepal, the men's premium footwear segment is logging around 16 percent growth rate.

She said Ruosh premium range of men's footwear is available from Rs.1,790 (sandals) and the shoe range stars from Rs.2,490 and goes up to Rs.14,990.

The company also sells products like socks, shoe polish, brush, wallets, belts and others under the same brand.