Bata ready to capture women’s footwear market

KARACHI: In the Pakistani shoe manufacturing industry, Bata is a name that needs no introduction. Having initially gained popularity through the manufacture of school shoes, the company has evolved into Pakistan’s largest footwear brand.

Bata was one of the first multinational organisations to set up operations in Pakistan. The company currently operates in 60 countries across the world and has recently started production of women’s shoes, besides bringing innovations to the core category of children’s shoes. Today, it has over 370 outlets in Pakistan.

Last year, three new machines were added to its manufacturing facilities in order to meet growing demand. Prices of the firm’s shares have also skyrocketed.

All the way up

The current managing director of Bata, Imran Malik, has worked his way to the top of the company after starting off as a salesman. Malik climbed the ladder to eventually bag the top most spot at the firm.

Talking to The Express Tribune, he commented that the nation was brimming with talent. He said that the employees at Bata felt pride in being part of the organisation and took ownership of their work. Due to their unfaltering commitment, Bata products have never failed to generate demand among customers.

He pointed out that at present many Pakistanis are working as country heads for Bata in different parts of the world, including Indonesia and Kenya. Malik was the first Pakistani to be appointed country head for Bata in Pakistan.

Innovations

Malik revealed that the company operated a department solely dedicated to following emerging trends in fashion. This enabled Bata to continue to cater to changing customer tastes. He pointed out that although the company initially established itself selling school shoes, it was now quite settled in the markets for men’s and women’s footwear as well.

He also said that the company was expanding its outlets to provide customers with more choices in stores. Parking lots were also being added so that customers could shop at Bata more conveniently.

The MD explained that three product lines brought in the bulk of revenues. Each store had a separate section for children’s shoes, branded under the name of ‘Bubble Gummers’. Women’s footwear was sold under the Marie Claire label. Similarly, sports shoes, joggers, trainers and sneakers were manufactured under the tag of ‘Power’. In addition to the top selling lines, Bata has also introduced an exclusive range of leather shoes for men.

Leave the door open

Malik always considered himself an integral part of the Bata family, even when he was in junior positions, reinforcing the fact that this sentiment was shared by almost all employees of the company.

Although he took immense pride in pointing out that sales had mushroomed during his tenure, he was quick to attribute this success to the hard work of his team. He explained that the company followed an open door policy where advice and feedback from employees was regularly incorporated into company decisions.

Malik held that no company could continue to progress without effective communication between workers and the various levels of management. In fact, he strongly believed that corporate success stories from around the world would not have been possible without a functional relationship between workers and management.

Grow, grow, grow...

Commenting on the introduction of new product lines, he elucidated that since the company had always been popular among children, the management wanted to capitalise and retain these kids as customers even when they grew up. Hence, lines for men and women were developed. Meanwhile, older products such as slippers, flip flops and summer shoes were still being produced along with new product lines because of their robust demand.

He shared that when the ‘Power’ product line was introduced, Bata received an overwhelming response from customers. The growing popularity of these products convinced the company to expand further.

Presently, the management was looking to expand stores and provide parking facilities for customers. He also said that five mega stores were being established in big cities of Pakistan. These included an outlet at Park Towers in Karachi and one in Islamabad’s Jinnah Super market.

The MD highlighted that Bata had recorded the best sales revenues and profits in the entire shoe manufacturing industry of Pakistan. He revealed that Bata was the only shoe store to offer a loyalty programme to customers. So far the loyalty programme has about 5,000 members in Lahore while in Karachi this number had already crossed the 10,000 mark.

Thank you, come again!

The company has also made a conscious effort to improve customer service. According to Malik, all salesmen of the company were now required to have completed at least secondary school. Similarly, the minimum qualification for branch managers was a bachelor’s degree. These requirements had been brought in so that visitors to Bata outlets could be hosted by knowledgeable and courteous staff, regardless of whether they made a purchase or not. The company also provided special training to all staff on a recurring basis so that optimum levels of customer service could be maintained.

Malik said that Bata was enhancing its production capacity by installing new machines at its factory. He added that soon the company would introduce celebrities as brand ambassadors to promote its products and was confident that in the near future Bata would become the biggest seller for women’s footwear as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 19^th, 2010.