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Shoe repair and shoe shining is a small industry which provides moderate living for craftspersons/entrepreneurs. Unlike in the international market, it is still in its nascent stage in India. Taking up the challenge to survive in a constantly changing marketplace and struggling to find ways to maintain a profitable business in the modern era, Sandeep Gajakas, Founder of India's first professional footwear laundry and refurbishing service for all types of footwear briefly discusses with Franchise India about tapping into this unexplored market.
What is the size of your industry?
This is a very new and emerging service industry in India and has tremendous potential. Given the population of India and the spending power and appetite for expensive branded shoes and complete absence of professional cleaning and after-sales service for an article, most hold very dear, the potential of this industry is unimaginable. We, ShoeVival – The Shoe Laundry, have developed the expertise through many years of research and development and created an amazing system to wash and repair shoes in a way that they look almost as good as new. The challenge now is to make the service known and available in every part of India and even other countries.
Tell us the USP of shoe mending industry and what is favoring its market growth?
Shoe mending has existed forever in a traditional and primitive format. Unfortunately, it did not evolve at the same pace as footwear, to mend them in a professional manner. We have created an extremely thorough system to wash, clean and repair footwear. Today anyone can call a service and within a day or two their shoes are cleaned inside out and repaired perfectly. That is the biggest USP of our service.
How do you see the industry in the coming years?
It can only grow as people are never going to stop wearing shoes and as long as the shoes get dirty and need to be fixed, our service is going to be needed. More and more international brands are now available and people are investing in good shoes. Thus, this service is always going to be needed to take care of them. Franchising is the best way to make this service widespread. Other opportunities are mostly over-crowded and some even saturated. This is a new and unique opportunity with limitless potential.
Franchising facts:
Total stores – 9 + 2 in the next 20 days
Investment – 5 lakhs to 10 Lakhs.
Expected ROI – 100%
Area Required – 250 – 300 sq. ft for workshop based model . 400 sq.ft for retail + workshop model.
Expected Breakeven : 6 month – 9 months.
