Bata India's Playbook: Chasing growth across Tier I and Tier II cities

/5 min read
Despite the headwinds, Bata India is chasIng growth from smaller towns and democratising style and comfort.
Bata India's Playbook: Chasing growth across Tier I and Tier II cities
Gunjan Shah, MD & CEO, Bata India Credits: Sanjay Rawat

IN ITS 94TH year in India, Bata is doing something very unlike Bata: it’s taking risks. The brand that generations grew up associating with brown sandals and bankable school shoes has, over the past few years, undergone what its MD & CEO, Gunjan Shah, calls a “360-degree transformation.” It’s an overhaul not just of product lines, but of how the company thinks, sells, communicates, and designs. “We’re rewiring the company,” Shah tells Fortune India. “We want to retain what makes us trusted but amplify where the consumer is headed.” Style, technology, and accessibility — he checks them off.

It is a work in progress, as the numbers show. In FY25, revenue remained nearly flat at ₹3,500 crore, up only 1% year-on-year. Gross margins contracted by 80 basis points (bps) to 56.3%. Operating profit (Ebitda) dropped 6% to ₹730 crore, while net profit was at ₹250 crore, down 15% YoY. The stock, meanwhile, saw a modest decline of 1.5% between April 1 and July 24.