Liberty Shoes plans to revamp retail network

Cashing in on the retail boom, Liberty Shoes has joined the bandwagon by planning to open 85 retail outlets across the country with a joint investment to the tune of around Rs 340 crore through Footmart Retail, India "� a joint venture between Pantaloon and Liberty with a 49 per cent stake.

Footmart, which was formed four months ago, is launching retail oulets in two formats "� Shoe Factory, a value oriented and lifestyle, a brand oriented outlet that will cater to the high end customers.

"We want to make customers a part of our industry and development process. Liberty is foraying into retail to directly involve customers in the supply chain of retail and manufacturing. In the next five years, Footmart will launch 65 Shoe Factories and 25 lifestyle outlets with an investment of about Rs 4 crore each," Anupam Bansal, director Footmart Retail, India told Business Standard.

He was in the city for the launch of country's first Shoe Factory at Ten Acre Mall. It is also close to finalising location for its second outlet in the city, said sources.

Footmart is also opening 10 Shoe Factory outlets in various cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi with an investment of Rs 40 crore, by the year end.

The sales projection would be around Rs 30 to 50 crore in the first year, he added.

"We chose Ahmedabad to open the first prototype outlet as the city has an exciting market and 10 Acre Mall is located at a place where there are not many disposable income customers. We are testing our centre," he said. Moreover, the sale target for the outlet is Rs 40 lakh in the first year.

Liberty, country's second largest shoe manufacturer, used to sell their shoes through franchise retail outlets.

Bansal said Footmart will not cannibalise on the market as the average footwear buy is less than one in the country against five worldwide.

"The more you sell, the more you will sell. It is more about tapping the huge market," he added. Footmart will also open its lifestyle brand oriented showroom in Ahmedabad but will take at least a year.

The lifestyle outlet will be around 2,000 sq ft unlike the 10,000 sq feet Shoe Factory, Bansal said. The footwear market is valued at around Rs 12,000 crore and dominated by unorganised sector which has cornered about 85 per cent.

"With our three new units in Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh, the company's production capacity will be 75,000 pairs a day by the end of the financial year," he added.