Woodland to enter skincare, foot-care segment shortly

CHANDRAPUR/NAGPUR: Homegrown premium footwear and apparel brand Woodland has said it will diversify into skincare and foot-care products by early next year.

"We are talking to a German company called PNS to do a line of skincare and foot-care products for us. It is not cosmetic but skincare solutions. We will start test-marketing early next year and will launch the products by September- October," company's Managing Director Harkirat Singh told PTI.

Singh, based in New Delhi, was here in Eastern Maharashtra as part of his company's CSR initiative to provide safe drinking water to villagers in association with Unicef.

He said the products will be expensive, as they will be imported from Germany, including the packaging components.

Asked about the brand name, he said, "PNS has its own brand, but here it will be a sub-brand. It will be connected to Woodland but will be named according to the product line".

The products like body lotions, sunscreen lotions, massage oils, face washes, will be initially sold through the company's 350 outlets and then via retail stores like Shoppers Stop, Reliance Trends and Lifestyle, Singh said.

"We are not in a hurry to expand our stores. We are opening about 4-5 stores every month. We are opening 40 per cent of our stores in Tier-II and Tier-III markets," Singh said, adding the company has plans to increase its capacity every three years and this year they have invested Rs 50-70 crore on new technology.

The company, that also has formal clothing range called Woods, a yoga line apart from its adventure shoe collection, is eyeing a growth of 30 per cent this fiscal.