Alexis Nasard, newly appointed chief executive officer of Switzerland-based Bata, said during a brief visit to Bangkok that not only was Thailand among the top 10 countries in terms of revenue contribution to the group, but the Kingdom was also a strategic market where the middle-class population was growing.
“I want to reassess the market to make sure that my five-year milestone would be achieved,” said Nasard, who has been in the consumer-goods industry for 24 years.
The company has set an ambitious goal to increase its turnover in Thailand by 35 per cent by 2020, double its profit and achieve a 5-per-cent share of the footwear market, up from 3.7 per cent now.
Although the CEO declined to reveal the revenue and profit targets, the company believes that overall annual turnover in five years’ time could hit those targets.
Asked about the company’s key strategies, he said there were three key pillars: product innovation and design, enhancing the shopping experience, and using the right marketing and communication approaches.
“Product is always king. So the company is planning to launch the latest special collections that are rooted in its 122-year history of making shoes,” he said.
An example is the Bata Tennis x Peanuts collaboration, featuring the late Charles Schulz’s famous “Peanuts” comics. Further collaborations will be announced in the coming months and will be available in Thailand via exclusive stores.
Apart from those efforts, the company aims to increase the number of branches in line with the expansion of shopping malls and department-store chains like Central Group and The Mall Group.
Currently the company operates 251 Bata stores and 25 Footin outlets for young customers.