Bata Thailand, the local arm of a global footwear company, has resumed its business plan to tap into Thailand's recovering 83-billion-baht footwear market.
Wilasinee Parnurat, the company's newly-appointed country manager, said Thailand's footwear market is back in full swing with 26% growth year to date, after a 2-year halt due to the pandemic situation, while Bata's sales in the first half of this year grew by 67% over the same period last year.
"Footwear, which was one of the products that consumers spent less money on during pandemic-related restrictions, is now seeing immense growth compared to the previous two years. For Bata, the past six months saw the brand gain a 67% increase in sales compared to the same period last year," she said.
According to Ms Wilasinee, both the market trend and consumer trends are shifting quickly, especially for fashion goods including shoes and bags. Sales are climbing as consumers gain more purchasing power. Moreover, the easing of pandemic-related restrictions is allowing consumers to resume their normal daily life and social life.
"For the past 2-3 years, most customers had very limited retail experiences and did not spend much money when shopping, so the situation now is a decent boost for businesses in general. We see this as a good opportunity to accelerate our marketing strategies to further promote our brand to new potential consumers," Ms Wilasinee said.
Ms Wilasinee said this year Bata expects to recoup 94% of the 2.5 billion baht in sales it recorded before the pandemic in 2019.
As part of its active strategies, the firm yesterday officially launched the "Surprisingly Bata'' campaign, hiring Ranee "Bella" Campen, a famous actress, to be the company's first brand ambassador in Thailand since its establishment in the country 94 years ago.
Driven by a trend of continuously increasing momentum, Ms Wilasinee said the company is also scheduled to launch new products into the market during the remaining months of the year with spending on offensive marketing.
Bata currently operates 233 of Bata's own shops across the country, along with 6 franchise-operated stores.
The company plans to revamp its shops during the remainder of this year and will also open Bata's flagship store in Bangkok this year.
