Tata Exports To Kick Off Own Footware Brand

Tata Exports has decided to launch its own brand of footwear in the domestic market. The shoes would be manufactured and marketed by the company.

The decision to launch its own brand was taken after its negotiations with Bally Shoes of Switzerland and Clarke International of UK for licencing arrangement, besides technical and marketing collaboration had fallen through.

However, it is not known whether the company would cash in on the Tata brand name or coin a new brand name for retailing its footwear.

The leather shoes, which would be available both in formal and casual category, would be targeted for the premium and mid segment market and would be priced accordingly, though the details would be shortly finalised, revealed a senior executive with the company.

 

Tata Exports has its manufacturing units at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh wherein the company has an installed capacity of 6,000 pairs per day. The company manufactures leather formals and casual footwear and markets it to other footwear companies like Metro Shoes for domestic retailing.

"It is true that our talks with Clarke and Bally Shoes have been shelved. While Bally has preferred to enter the domestic market with its own subsidiary company, the problems with Clarke were of a different nature. We are now planning to enter the market with our own brand name," said M L Jain, general manager, operations, Tata Exports. Clarke International, which owns globally popular brands in footwear like K-Shoes and Clarke Shoes, had begun negotiations with Tata Exports for a brand licensing agreement for sometime. However, Jain revealed that the talks had fallen through after the UK-based company demanded a continuous royalty payment contract for franchising out its brand names to Tata Exports.

Tata Exports had also approached Bally Shoes for marketing and distribution of its premium footwear in India. However, Bally has decided to come on its own instead and has already received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to set up its 100% wholly owned subsidiary in India.The Swiss company, whose Indian subsidiary will also set up a chain of retail stores for the marketing and distribution of Bally products in the major metropolises of India, has reiterated its intention to focus only on marketing and quality control activities in India. Though it will not undertake manufacturing activities directly, the company will take up exports of shoes from India.

Though the size of the premium to mid segment category in footwear is very limited, about 20,000 to 30,000 pairs of shoes annually, there is considerable competition in these categories. Tata Exports footwear business in the domestic market would face competition from not only the established domestic brands like Liberty and Bata, but also from international companies which have made forays in the middle level and premium segments like Hush Puppies (with Bata) and Lotus of UK, besides Bally Shoes.