Woodland to invest Rs 40 cr in upgrading manufacturing capacity

Footwear and adventure gear brand Woodland is looking at upscaling their manufacturing capacity by 30 percent.

"We already have 600 company owned outlets and around 5,000 multi brand stores. Added to that, we have the growing demand from e-commerce alongside supply requirements in markets like China, Russia and Africa. This requires capacity enhancement across our manufacturing units,"said Harkirat Singh, Managing Director, Woodland

Woodland will be upgrading machinery and bringing in new ones in its Noida facility. Investments to the tune of Rs 40 crore will be done for the upgradation. Apart from Noida, where the brand's apparel is manufactured, upscaling of facilities will happen across manufacturing units in places like Jalandhar, Dehradun, Baddi and others.

The manufacturing enhancement plan also includes acquiring Kanpur's sick leather units. "The acquisitions would happen in phases and in the first phase we are acquiring maximum of one or two of these sick leather units," added Singh. Some of these Kanpur units would be utilised to manufacture safety and heavy work boots and footwear.  There are plans for the company to set up an integrated leather footwear manufacturing plant in Kanpur.

Woodland, with turnover of  Rs 1,200 crore in 2016-17, has been maintaining a consistent 15 to 20 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. The brand is also increasing its footprint in the country and plans to add another 30-40 stores in the upcoming fiscal.

"In tandem with PM Modi's make in India mission , we are planning to produce our own fabric and introduce captive dying facilities for our apparel range" Singh signed off.