Aero Club, the parent company of Woodland, saw sales plummet drastically in FY21. After having shut 40 Woodland stores during the pandemic, the company is aiming to regain its sheen this year. Harkirat Singh talks to Vaishnavi Gupta about the brand’s foray into personal care and athleisure categories, the importance of a brick-and-mortar presence, and the role of e-commerce in its sales strategy.
How have the multiple waves of the pandemic impacted your business?
The pandemic has affected the retail sector quite a bit. Earlier, we used to add 40-50 exclusive stores every year, but for the past two years, we have not launched any new stores. In the pre-pandemic time, we used to operate 540 exclusive stores, but since the pandemic broke out, we closed 40 of our non-performing stores. Our sales were hugely impacted — from a sales revenue of Rs 1,200 crore in FY20, we were close to Rs 700 crore in FY21. In January this year, we were hit again by the third wave; our sales declined by 60%. January is the high season for us; products like jackets and boots do especially well during this time. However, the third wave was less destructive than the first and second. We expect our sales to be back to normal, and hope to achieve the same target as FY20.
Will your offline expansion be muted this year or are store launches on the cards?
For the past two years, our focus has been on the online business. But now, since the threat of the pandemic is receding, offline stores are bouncing back to normal. We believe that brick-and-mortar stores will continue to survive because people still want to touch and feel products before making a purchase. Our offline business will always remain a dominant sales channel. We plan to add around 25 exclusive stores this year, primarily targetting metro cities. Additionally, we also plan to expand our network of multi-brand outlets (MBOs) which stands at 4,000 currently.
How big a contributor is e-commerce for you?
The pandemic has drastically improved our online sales. E-commerce channels used to contribute around 10% of our overall sales before the pandemic. Today, they contribute around 30% of our total sales. Going forward, we expect this to increase to 40%. A major chunk of our online sales comes from marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart and Myntra.
The past year saw Woodland diversify into deodorants, athleisure wear and more. Will you be beefing up offerings further, going ahead?
We launched deodorants for men and women under our personal care line after seeing a lot of impulsive buying by consumers at our stores. For instance, people notice and purchase products like wallets, belts and caps that are kept around the payment counter. We started selling this line in our exclusive stores and on e-commerce channels. This year, we plan to take this product to multi-brand stores where it may sell more since it is an FMCG product. We will also expand the personal care line by launching body wash and hair wash in small packs, and sunscreen in the next fiscal.
Last year, we also added canvas shoes to our portfolio. Because people were confined to their homes during the pandemic, we felt there was a need to launch comfort-oriented products. We are witnessing an increase in demand for casual products; they are contributing 10-15% of our overall sales. We also entered the athleisure wear segment in 2021 with products like track pants, nightwear pants, joggers and innerwear. Further, we will be adding sunglasses and headwear bands to our portfolio, and expand our backpack line by introducing travel bags. This segment contributes around 15% of our total sales.
What’s the contribution of global markets to your overall sales?
Around 20% of our business comes from international markets. Globally, we are present in the Middle East, South Africa, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, China, Canada, and Russia. Going forward, we plan to expand to North and South America.
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