“We plan to open 75 new stores this fiscal”- Farah Malik

Please tell us in detail about your franchising model?

Metro Shoes currently runs on a company-owned model and has recently entered into an exclusive agreement for opening CROCS EBOs. In this format we may explore the opportunity of franchising.

Presently, many global brands in this sector are entering into India. What’s your take on that and do you see it as a competition?

The rise of international brands in the Indian market signals the opportunity available in this sector. Metro Shoes being a market leader, welcomes this competition as it allows us to benchmark our range, systems and processes against those that are best in class. Competition will force us to become better and give the customer better value.

Given the current market scenario, Metro Shoes would not hesitate to partner with other international brands that we feel have potential in India as we have with CROCS.

What kind of training and business support do you provide to the franchisees? Elaborate about the same.

We continuously train our managers on several aspects, from stock keeping and accounting to VM and grooming.

In terms of marketing, we change our branding visuals etc in every six months. It changes far more frequently on digital.

Do you evaluate the performance of your franchisee? Please elaborate how do you audit?

There are several metrics we use to evaluate in a store, which is not limited to conversion rate, items per bill, same store sales growth, mystery shopping etc.

Typically for an investor who is planning to invest in this sector, what are the factors that he/ she should keep in mind?

• -Do not invest in real estate at unreasonable rates.
• -Have very strong systems to monitor cash flow.
• -Retail is one business in which you can be bankrupt and not know it.
• -Keep reinventing your store experience
• -Delight the customer.

What are your expansion plans?

Metro Shoes in the last year has consciously grown both vertically and horizontally. We plan to open 75 new stores in different formats across India in the current financial year. We are also looking forward to clock INR 1060 crores revenue this fiscal, up from INR 917 crore this year. Also, our e-commerce site is growing at 200 – 250 per cent on a year on year basis.

We are now partnering with brands for their distribution, expansion and launches in India like Crocs for example. Value Format Stores MSL (More shoes for Less) will also continue to be a focus in the coming years.We have recently launched a concept store in Gurgaon (Gurugram). Besides this, we also want to strengthen our hold in the tier II and tier III markets, which will require sustainable yet aggressive expansion plans.