Shoe retailing giant Bata India has announced its decision to launch concept stores for women across India shortly, to capitalize on fast-growing ladies shoe business.

Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, managing director of Bata India, said the ladies shoe business was going to be the next big opportunity for the company as it was growing at a rate of more than 30 per cent.

Speaking on the topic, he added, "We shall introduce concept stores for women in India shortly. These will be spread over 600-800 square feet."

The company is turning its focus to women customers in India as the country now has a bigger population of working and financially independent women. Another reason is that women have a bigger fancy for footwear than men.

Thus, the company decided to open `women's only' concept stores staring next year to cater to and capitalize on women's that fancy.

Gopalakrishnan also announced that the company would introduce a new ladies footwear brand for Indian women, called Sundrops. The company's existing women footwear brands include Marie Claire, Foot, Sparx and Scholl.

Bata India, which operated as many as 1,250 stores across the country, aims to hike the revenue contribution from its ladies footwear business from current 20 per cent of overall sales to 40 per cent.