22 January 2023, Mumbai
Anil Somani has joined Bata as chief financial officer. He will lead the financial vertical of the company and be responsible for the future growth of the company.
He is a chartered accountant with over 25 years of experience in finance, strategy, compliance, information management and business development functions.
He comes from Reliance Retail where he is currently serving as executive vice president and chief financial officer for the digital business. He has worked with Croma, Walmart, Metro Cash & Carry and more.
Bata is the largest footwear retailer in India with company-owned stores, shop-in-shops and franchisee stores. Bata is targeting at bringing down the average age of customers from the current 39 years to about 25 years. This will be done by engaging young actors for advertising, introducing products for that age group and changing the layout of stores. The company has launched a concept called the sneaker studio, which brings all of Bata’s seven brands of sneakers in India into one place.
Bata had to raise product prices due to inflation. The company has introduced new products in the price brackets which were getting vacated because of the price increase. Bata has had its highest ever quarterly sales.
