“The company’s thrust is to improve the customer experience, get more contemporary, and get younger people to the stores.... The challenge is younger people are not coming to Bata in the manner we would have liked. Emphasis now on the marketing team is to retain your loyal customers and get new and young customers, we are also concentrating more on women’s shoes,” said the official. The company invested around Rs 100 crore on its stores in the last three years. Bata now has seven entirely women-run stores, and is planning to open one in South Kolkata, which will also be its first such outlet in eastern India. “In our 500 top stores, 22 per cent of our team members are ladies. This figure is three times what we had three years ago,” said Mr Kataria.

As much as 85 per cent of the company’s sales are through its stores, while about five per cent comes from e-commerce. The company now sells over 47 million pairs of footwear in India, with its business now growing at a marginal rate of two-three per cent.