First among footwear majors: Bata to cross 2k-store mark by Dec
Times of India | 28 October 2025This was disclosed by Bata India MD & CEO Gunjan Shah as he and chairman Ashwani Windlass spoke to TOI on Monday in the city.
Bata has 1,300 company-owned company-operated (COCO) stores now, and there will be 700 franchisee stores by Dec. "By Dec, we will have 2,000 outlets — which we think will be the first from any footwear retailer to achieve the mark," Shah said.
Bata was going through a strategic transformation, with a deeper thrust on reimagining the organisation, said Windlass.
The company is undertaking the transformation of 250 COCO stores under zero-based merchandising, where aged inventories would be lowest. By June 26, the shoe major plans to transform at least 800 stores.
Shah added that Bata had set a target to cross 1,000 franchisee stores in next 2-3 years. Besides, there would be a deeper association in the digital channel as well. According to him, while online business was in low double digits as far as revenue share is concerned, it could go up to 20%.
The company has also recently introduced a new app.
Commenting on the new GST regime, Shah added that there has been reasonably good momentum since Sept 22, though there was a disruption for a few days prior to the rollout of the new regime. "We should see benefits in the next 6-7 months," he added.
Meanwhile, Bata India has said that for the quarter ended Sept 30, revenue from operations for the quarter stood at Rs 801 crore, compared to Rs 837 crore in the year-ago period. The shoe major said that this was due to the deferment of purchases by channel partners and customers since the announcement of GST rate rationalisation.
