Bata goes for Rs 25 million expansion program

by Surekha Galagoda

The Bata Shoe Company of Ceylon Ltd will invest over Rs. 25 million to expand its operations this year, said its Managing Director R.J. Mollo.

The expansion plan includes opening 11 new stores in strategic locations as well as renovating and giving a facelift to Bata Shops around the country.

The first of these stores will be opened at Negris Building Colombo early next week. These endeavours have helped the company to increase sales and consolidate its position in the market, said Mollo.

Since the name Bata is well known, it is easy to build the brand and market it. He said upgrading the product, introducing new designs and styles are a continuous process and the company has also made substantial investments to purchase new equipment while plans are under way to buy more modern state-of-the-art equipment to face the competition.

Now we don't import a lot of shoes as most of them are manufactured locally or purchased through contractors. This is one of the reasons we are heavily involved into purchasing equipment, he said.

For a year we introduce 200-300 new designs which include children's shoes, rubber thongs, ladies shoes, men's, and casual wear shoes as well.

The company uses the latest technology to manufacture high quality shoes complying with international standards while they are also exported to countries such as New Zealand, Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea and the West Indies.

Last year too we had the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest and this year too it will be held on a grand scale in October. The company will be involved in the Scout Movement as well as we want to be involved with the people of the country we serve.

Mollo said that that the company will be a force to reckon with in time to come. He said that moving the head office and warehouse back to Ratmalana has helped the company to cut down a lot of unnecessary expenditure.

The head office and warehouse had to be moved from Ratmalana in October 2004 after the workers started a strike in June 2004. But since the atmosphere has returned to normalacy we decided to shift the head office and warehouse to Ratmalana for easy management and to cut down unnecessary expenditure.

He said that the company is making a turnaround after the unrest and we have already settled our dues including the VRS payments to 140 workers amounting to Rs. 47 million.

Mollo said that business looks promising now as we refocussed on the business last year by reducing expenditure and restructuring the management.

Year 2007 is an year of expansion and our company is focused on marketing the brand and creating more awareness about the brand Bata among Sri Lankan customers.

He said the financial position is getting better and as the business is more focused we are getting more support from all the financial institutions we are dealing with.

He said that Bata provides its staff a healthy working environment, welfare and other social facilities and we train our staff in house, send them for locally conducted courses, international seminars, study courses and conferences.

All these measures have resulted in a well-trained and motivated staff of 600 with a lean management structure. He said the three-year collective agreement was signed last year between the unions and the company.

The Bata Shoe organisation, the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of footwear has been in operation since 1894 in over 60 countries employing over 67,000 employees.

The company has over 70 manufacturing units including shoe manufacturing plants, engineering plants, production of moulds, quality control laboratories, hosiery factories, product development centres and tanneries.

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