Bata India, India’s top footwear retailer, is grappling with zero revenues and fixed costs such as rentals and salaries as it had to close its factories and sales operations because of the lockdown.
The company, which has a network of 1,400 branded stores and thousands of multi-brand outlets, wants a government stimulus while it gears up for tough times ahead as consumer spending will likely take a while to recover fully even after the covid-19 crisis gets over, said Sandeep Kataria, the company’s chief executive officer.
Edited excerpts of an interview: What is the short- and medium-term outlook for Bata India in view of the current crisis? In line with Union government and state guidelines, we have closed both our retail and online