“Franchise route helps in mass expansion”

Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland India in a colloquy with Rashi Mathur, shares how the brand has kept alive its mantra of ‘Explore more’ while adopting franchise route for expansion at the same time.

Over two decades of business operations and Woodland never opted for franchising. Why so?

Every corporate brand has its own business strategy. We at Woodland have always believed that company owned company operated (COCO) is the best way to retain brand ethos and provide the specific experience that a brand envisions for the end customer. However Woodland has strengthened its presence over last two decades and so has the demand. Now is the time to expand our footprint and thus we are in the process of reviewing possibilities of franchise model.

What made Woodland finally step into franchising?

We have a strong presence across the country through our equi-distributed network of over 500 stores. However there are smaller markets where it might not be viable to start afresh to open a store. Thus partnering with a local expert would be a better proposition. Franchise stores will ensure easy and wider accessibility of Woodland products for the consumers.

Annotate about your expansion plans.

We wish to expand pan-India. Franchise route is a parallel route to COCO to help us achieve it. We are open to all relevant locations. We shall individually review various parameters including location, size, market captivity, investment partner et al and add to our existing scale of presence.

There any many established brands that are yet to make a debut in franchise arena. Any word of motivation for them?

Franchise route helps in mass expansion since you get investment partners as well as brand custodians who know their market well. There are more and more entrepreneurs who are educated, professional in outlook and wish to have their own business modules. Be selective in choosing franchisees since we cannot compromise the product and service quality of the brand which form the pillars of our existence.

What strategy will you adopt to ensure uniformity in prices and products across franchise stores in online space?

Lately, e-commerce portals have been disturbing the market environment by offering huge discounts and have imbalanced the entire eco-system. In order to cater to the growing demand across all channels, we have decided to have separate Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) for each of them, subject to our mutually agreed costing so that there is no overlapping and one can set their own price points. We believe, this will help each platform scale up individually with its own set of offerings.

Footwear industry

At present, Indian footwear industry is the second-largest footwear producer after China.

It is considered to possess a significant potential with overall market anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 14% during 2012-2014.

The market is de-licensed, which further creates expansion opportunities for the production capacities in modern state-of-the-art units.

Indian footwear industry is mainly driven by men's footwear segment, which has been booming with the rise in purchasing power of the image consciousness youngsters.

Favourite Footwear Brand: WOODS

Why follow franchise footsteps?

= Internationally proven business model

= Key to expansion in this competitive market place

= A growth platform for like minded and locally influential entrepreneurs

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