Bata World Digest May 1, 2015

World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest
News from around Bata World
AT A GLANCE
PERSON OF THE WEEK:
Meet Gabriella Sgroi,
Serving Customers for
25 Years and Counting
Zeus Concept Stores a
Success for Bata South
Africa
Bata Retail Race: Pole Position in Malaysia
The Bata Retail Race is heating up in Malaysia.
Q & A with Uttam Kumar
Open House Helps Bata
Industrials Peru Connect
with Customers
BCP India Brings
Computer Classes to Its
Schools
Bata Pakistan Honored
with Karachi Stock
Exchange Award
Leather Ballerinas Made by Bata in
Bolivia Are Market Leaders
New Visual Merchandising
Techniques for Singapore
and Malaysia
The Bata Shoe Museum’s
Popular Sneaker
Exhibition Hits the Road
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
The Bata Retail Race is
heating up in Malaysia.
STORE
BATA Group
Bata Retail Race: Pole
Position in Malaysia
In all of Bata Malaysia, this store got
the top results in the third week of the
race. To congratulate the winning
team, on April 27 store operations
manager Ong Chin Teong flew the 400
kilometers from headquarters near
Kuala Lumpur to the town nestled in
the hills of northern Malaysia.
Kuala Krai has a population of around
150,000. Knowing that regular
customers are vital to sustain and
grow her business, the store manager,
Oh Lean Wah, has always focused on
maintaining relationships with her
customers by serving them beyond
their expectations.
This year, with the opportunities of the
Bata Retail Race, which rewards the
whole team, she began further
encouraging her sales staff to achieve
greater results by improving their
customer service.
Everyone was glowing with pleasure
when they learned that together they
had earned the maximum 40 points
for each of the first four weeks of the
race. Indeed, the store continues to
hold the top ranking in Malaysia.
Jamie Ooi, KPI manager and Bata
Retail Race coordinator in Malaysia,
commented, “Injecting fun into our
daily work lives is brilliant to spark
extraordinary results. Making work
really fun can be a great way to
help store managers and sales staff
feel good about where they work
and what they do.”
Ooi, together with retail operations
manager Lee Kim Sun, drove 200
kilometers to the city of Ipoh to also
congratulate the winning district
manager of the week ending April 17,
Aim Muhammad.
They took the opportunity to
encourage the store staff in the
district to step on the gas. They
distributed motivational posters and
met with six store managers to brief
them on the race and show them the
features of the Bata Retail Race App.
As they tried out the App on their
smartphones and tablets, the team
leaders checked their points and
compared their results to their
friends’. The excitement of the
competition was soon in the air!
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
The Bata World News
team recently caught up
with Uttam Kumar, head
of Footin at Bata India,
to discuss the brand and
its products, as well as
taking the opportunity
to learn about some of
the most important
trends in the region.
INTERVIEWS
BATA Group
Q & A with Uttam Kumar
What is the mission of the
Footin brand in India?
Our mission at Footin is to be the
favorite and most affordable fastfashion footwear and accessories
brand for youth in India.
The Footin brand is targeted
to young customers from
15-25 years of age. What
trends are currently
important with this group?
Color block is to be a key trend across
all categories in both men's and
women's. This has been one common
trend followed by all the fashion
houses and international brands.
Desert boots, lifestyle sneakers, skate
shoes and loafers continue to remain
a popular trend in the men's category.
In the women's category, flatform,
pointed ballerinas, flat derby shoes
and toe-ring flat sandals are key items.
We also see that high-shine metallic,
floral and camouflage prints are one
of the current key trends within this
group.
Which has been the bestselling Footin product over
the last year?
Footin offers its customers a wide
range of fashion footwear to choose
from. The key men's categories are
fashion formals, loafers, casual and
boots. For women the key categories
are closed pumps, ballerinas, flats,
heels and wedges. However, casual
boots for men and ballerinas for
women have been the customers'
favorites and have been the bestselling products over the last year.
And what trends do you
expect to see over the next
year?
Suede monk-strap brogue casuals are
expected to be among the trends over
the next year. We also observed that
the sneaker is going to be a revolution
in both the men's and women's
categories, moving from streetwear
staple to high-end fashion commodity.
For women, loafers, thong sandals
and chelsea boots are the key items
forecast for 2016. Metallic and highshine materials are set to continue
strongly, and monochrome is
expected to make a comeback in
Autumn/Winter 15/16.
Are there any styles or
materials that are
particularly popular with
your customers?
Let us address this question
separately for men and women. Men's
loafers have been a choice of
customers since their inception. We
have been offering newer generations
and colors of loafers in line with the
latest trends every season. In the last
two seasons, the suede chukka boot
has been popular and has caused a
buzz amongst customers, social
media and stylists.
World Digest
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
Q & A with Uttam Kumar
For women, ballerinas and slingback
sandals have become one of the most
sought after styles by customers.
Color-blocked heels, flat oxfords and
flatforms, introduced last season, have
gained much attention and have
become extremely popular with our
young female customers.
Which new or future
products are you
particularly excited about?
We at Footin are always excited
whenever we try new trends or
concepts. This time we are very much
excited about men's brogue casual
shoes, and the glitter range of loafers
and ballerinas which will be in stores
this May. We are expecting a good
customer response and a lot of
interest.
What are the characteristics
of Footin products that set
them apart from others?
Trendy, colorful, fast fashion, at an
affordable price are the key
characteristics of Footin that clearly
differentiate us from others.
Finally, what song would you
most like to hear played on
Radio Bata World?
“Addicted” by Enrique Igelsias.
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
For ten years, Bata’s
factory in Quillacollo,
Bolivia has been making
an extraordinary
collection known as 100
Percent Leather
Ballerinas.
MANUFACTURING
BATA Group
Leather Ballerinas Made by
Bata in Bolivia Are Market
Leaders
These leather ballerinas are sold with
the tagline “Feel the comfort on your
feet.” Women between 25 and 45
years old seeking an all-in-one shoe
for their diverse lifestyles couldn’t be
happier. Besides excellent comfort,
these ballerinas provide women with
style, high quality and the peace of
mind that they will look good for all
the different activities they carry out in
a day.
Using a cemented construction, these
ballerinas pair leather uppers with
leather linings and comfortable
leather insoles. The soles are made of
thermoplastic rubber and PVC.
While production of 100 Percent
Leather Ballerinas began in 2005,
because of the importance of offering
this type of product, in recent years
Bata Bolivia has worked on developing
additional projects in the line and new
contemporary designs for the soles.
The entry of these new projects is
expected to trigger a sales growth of
110 percent.
The ballerinas are distributed to all
Bata and Manaco stores in Bolivia,
along with promotional material
emphasizing the benefits of leather
footwear.
Monica Mier, company manager of
Bata Bolivia, said, “We are very
proud of this project and how
clients are receiving it. The value
that we are giving to clients with
these products will give us a
competitive advantage for the
stores.”
In 2014, sales of these ballerinas
through retail, catalogues and other
channels was around 96,000 pairs,
representing a significant 38 percent
of the sales of Ladies’ shoes produced
domestically.
The quality and comfort of these
shoes has been recognized not only
by the Bolivian market, however. In
2014 the company had a growth of
105 percent in exported pairs of these
shoes, which were bought by Bata
Chile, Bata Ecuador and Bata Peru.
Between cutters, stitchers and
shoemakers, 70 to 75 people work to
make a pair of these ballerinas. The
factory manufactures around 138,000
pairs of them yearly, which means
they make up 13 percent of its total
leather production.
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
Bata Industrials recently
held an open house
event at its offices in
Lima, Peru as a means
of strengthening
relationships with its
customers.
CORPORATE
BATA Group
Open House Helps Bata
Industrials Peru Connect
with Customers
Also in attendance were Harm Daems,
Bata Industrials worldwide brand
director; Luis Vergara, Bata Industrials
regional manager for Latam; and
Miguel Dammert, brand manager of
Bata Industrials Peru.
The event provided the company with
the opportunity to highlight recent
updates, through the delivery of
courses and presentations, and was
helpful in building a stronger and
closer relationship with customers,
enabling them to make better
purchasing decisions.
Daems, speaking about the event,
said: "It has been a great
opportunity to show our customers
and consumers the aspects that
support our brand, not only in
terms of product but also our
enormous experience in the
business, and the technology
applied to our footwear."
Vergara commented: "The objectives
set out for this open house were
achieved. We had the opportunity to
exchange ideas and knowledge with
our customers and friends about the
products and the market, at both local
and global level. For us and our brand,
it has been very important and
satisfying to have guests from the
major productive sectors, retailers
and the largest safety distributors in
Peru.”
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
Bata Singapore hosted a
visual merchandising
training course for
participants from Bata
Singapore and Malaysia
from April 14 to 17.
CORPORATE
BATA Group
New Visual Merchandising
Techniques for Singapore
and Malaysia
Providing training for the event was
Giuseppe Marrocco, visual
merchandising manager for Bata
Europe, and also present was
Namthip Phumchareondee, company
manager of Bata Singapore.
The course featured merchandisers,
buyers, store managers and district
managers, all of whom were eager to
benefit from the opportunity to learn
new ways of presenting products in
the perpetually evolving retail sector.
The format consisted of a theory
session as well a full day of practical
implementation, with the latter being
held at Bata Singapore’s Flagship
store. A range of techniques were
used in the store, from geometrical
shape displays to displaying by style
and color, as participants were given
the freedom to put into practice what
they had learned the previous day in
the classroom.
Amzah Hassan, a retail manager for
Bata Singapore, commented: “We
are pleased to be able to host Mr.
Giuseppe Marrocco to conduct
specialized visual merchandising
training. In a competitive retail
landscape such as Singapore, we
are pleased to be given lots of
valuable input from Bata Europe to
adapt to the local Asian market.”
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
“Out of the Box: The Rise
of Sneaker Culture” got
a lot of attention when it
opened at the Bata Shoe
Museum in 2013.
CORPORATE
BATA Group
The Bata Shoe Museum’s
Popular Sneaker Exhibition
Hits the Road
The exhibition has been expanded in
partnership with the American
Federation of the Arts and will travel
to four US venues, beginning with
New York’s Brooklyn Museum in July.
Sneakers have long been cherished as
a staple of casual fashion,
transcending categories to become
the footwear of choice for billions
across the globe.
Museum-goers will get to see nearly
150 sneakers, many of them rare, in a
collection curated by Elizabeth
Semmelhack, acclaimed shoe
historian and senior curator at the
Bata Shoe Museum. Specimens on
display date all the way back to the
1830s and include a complete
presentation of Nike Air Jordans,
starting with the first 1985 model that
was advertised by the great Michael
Jordan.
Moments of innovation are illustrated
with sneakers like Nike’s lightweight
Waffle Trainer of 1974 and Adidas’
1984 Micropacer, which was designed
to track performance.
The traveling exhibition will be richly
contextualized with film footage,
photographic images and design
drawings, creating a backdrop of the
social history, technical innovation,
fashion trends, and marketing
campaigns that have helped shape
contemporary sneaker culture over
the past two centuries.
“It takes courage for a museum to
venture into the interpretation of a
contemporary cultural phenomenon,”
commented Emanuele Lepri, director
of the Bata Shoe Museum. “Especially
when the very essence of such a
phenomenon speaks of antiestablishment values, rebellion, and
challenges to formality and traditional
social structures.
“What makes the project unique is
that ‘Out of the Box’ doesn’t simply
address these aspects of the sneaker
but deals with the cultural meanings
hidden in those rubber soles, and
makes an effort to present the
extraordinary trajectory of the
sneaker in its endless transformations
since the 19th century,” he added. “We
all felt energized by the compelling
challenge of working on an exhibition
which dealt with something so
relevant in our contemporary world,
yet so new in terms of academic or
curatorial work.
“Out of the Box: The Rise of
Sneaker Culture” is also being
developed into a fully illustrated
catalogue, co-published by the AFA
in partnership with the Bata Shoe
Museum and Rizzoli. It will be a
definitive history of sneaker culture
and a must-read for the shoe
industry and aficionados.
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
During its recent Store
Manager Meeting in
Rome, AW LAB took a
moment to publicly
thank and congratulate
Gabriella Sgroi for her
25 years of service.
INTERVIEWS
Tell us about your retail
career in Sicily. How did it
start?
After graduation, I started working at
the age of 20 as a fourth-level sales
assistant. For 11 years I worked at
Bata, and later, in 2001, I moved to
the first AW LAB store in Catania.
In March you were the only
one to receive a long service
award in front of a big
audience: the AW LAB Store
Manager Meeting. What was
that like?
It was a nice experience, having
received this satisfaction after 25
years of work.
What is the best part of your
job?
Being in contact with the public
gives me so much satisfaction; this
is one of the most important things
BATA Group
PERSON OF THE WEEK: Meet
Gabriella Sgroi, Serving
Customers for 25 Years and
about my career in Bata.
What are the most popular
products at your store at the
moment?
Vans, Converse, Adidas Superstar
Supercolor and Nike Free.
What's the first thing you do
when you arrive at the store
each day?
You have to check the work to be
done and immediately set to work,
making yourself available to the
customer.
Why have you stayed with
AW LAB over the years?
Because it is a serious company, and I
feel good here.
What makes a great sales
assistant?
Determination, charisma and patience
with customers. I’d advise to always
have a lot of patience, in order to work
best with different types of customers
coming into the store every day.
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
Bata South Africa
recently renovated two
of its City Concept
stores, converting them
into the new Zeus
Concept format.
STORE
BATA Group
Zeus Concept Stores a
Success for Bata South
Africa
The two stores, in Johannesburg and
KwaZulu-Natal, reopened for trade at
the end of March, and promotions
and free gifts were offered to
customers during the course of the
opening weekend to celebrate the
transformation.
The new appearance is attracting
customers in greater numbers, and
walk-in rates are increasing as buyers
are drawn to the new look. Customer
feedback indicates that the brand
image has also been improved by the
new design.
Bata South Africa's fresh new Autumn
Collection is a perfect fit for the new
design, creating a positive impression
with shoppers, especially those visiting
a Bata store for the first time.
Pictures of the new-look stores have
been posted on social media, and
comments regarding the new design
have been very positive.
Gerry Tham, retail manager,
commented: "The Zeus fit-out has
helped the business in setting a
new aspiring benchmark for the
Bata image in the country. The new
stores have helped elevate our
image with customers and among
landlords in the shopping center
industry."
World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
The Bata Children’s
Program (BCP) India’s
current main goal is
improving the quality of
education in the schools
it has taken under its
wing.
BCP / SUSTAINABILITY
BATA Group
BCP India Brings Computer
Classes to Its Schools
The majority of the students at these
schools, located near the Bataganj
factory in Patna, Bihar and near Bata
India’s office in Gurgaon, Haryana, are
from underprivileged backgrounds.
BCP India knew introducing these
children to technology would be an
important step in boosting their
education. The guidelines of the
National Curriculum Framework
include computer classes as essential
for students to be competitive in the
job market when they finish school.
Thus the BCP team took the initiative
to implement a full project: the
volunteers set up computer labs,
bought new computers and furniture
and hired an IT teacher.
The project has focused on fostering
the skills of girls. The BCP school in
Gurgaon is an all girls’ school, and at
the Bataganj school, the computer
classes have been rolled out initially
for the girls only. In four months, BCP
has been able to reach about 150
students, who have been following a
structured curriculum on computer
basics. Plans are in place for them to
continue on to more advanced
classes.
For almost all of the children, this is
their first opportunity to learn about
computers. Teachers are explaining
the concepts to them in the local
language and assessing their progress
monthly.
The principal of the Gurgaon
school, Sudesh Yadav, commented,
“Computer classes have made
studies enjoyable for the children.
Children wait eagerly for their
computer period and enjoy coming
to the school now. Parents also
appreciate this initiative of Bata
India Ltd.”
One of the girls at the Bataganj school
explained that because of low family
resources, she had never had a
chance to learn about computers and
felt ashamed of this. But now she feels
confident to talk about computers as
she is learning and developing her
skills. She said she looks forward to
the class and that it had made school
fun for her.
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World Digest
Bata World Digest May 1, 2015
Weekly Digest News from around Bata World
Muhammad Qayyum,
company manager of
Bata Pakistan, received
an award from Prime
Minister Mian
Mohammad Nawaz
Sharif, and Finance
Minister Ishaq Dar at a
ceremony in late March
organized by the Karachi
Stock Exchange to honor
the top 25 companies in
Pakistan.
CORPORATE
BATA Group
Bata Pakistan Honored
with Karachi Stock
Exchange Award
Every year, the Karachi Stock
Exchange holds such an event to
acknowledge the performance of
Pakistan's top businesses. It is a
distinguished event that motivates
every company to put in their best
efforts all year round, and this year a
legacy of hard work and excellence
paid off when Bata Pakistan was
awarded seventh place on the list.
Companies are rated on a
comprehensive list of criteria,
including factors such as dividend
payout, capital efficiency, profitability,
transparency and investor relations,
compliance with security regulations,
and corporate social responsibilities.
Being a multinational company, Bata
Pakistan has played a vital role in the
economic progress of Pakistan. It has
introduced sophisticated technologies
and business skills, and provided
direct and indirect employment to
about 10,000 people in the country.
Qayyum stated: "The Top 25
Companies Awards were a good
attempt by the Karachi Stock
Exchange to encourage
shareholder confidence and
develop a competitive spirit among
companies in the areas of dividend
payouts, the liquidity of the scrip,
the market price of shares, good
corporate governance and
adherence to the listing
regulations."