Sreeleathers : The Emerging footwear brand of India
The story of Sreeleathers from a humble store in Jamshedpur to pan India presence is inspiring in every sense. What started as a passion for Swadeshi' product has evolved into a successful business that focuses on meeting customers' expectations and that too at an affordable price.
The history of the Company dates more than half a century back. It started as a humble organisation in Jamshedpur when freedom fighter Late Suresh Chandra Dey, enthused with national fervour, wanted to give his countrymen the luxury of wearing comfortable shoes.
Its products range from footwear to various leather accessories like bags, belts, purses, etc. The company is known for its quality, trust and great values.
It has supplied its products to millions of satisfied customers all over the globe, the majority of who become its regular customers.
Sreeleathers has made the dream of the founder the great Suresh Chandra Dey true to make strong and decent shoes that could be affordable for every average Indian, says Sushanto Dey, partner, Sreeleathers.
When Sushanto took over the reins of footwear and accessories business from his father Sekhar Dey, it was already an established name in eastern and northern India.
Armed with a degree in business administration from Western Michigan University, USA, Sushanto has added value to the brand by diversifying into untapped market and paving way for e-commerce business.
Understanding the importance of diversifying, in 2009, Sushanto, a third generation member of the family, moved from his hometown Jamshedpur to Tamil Nadu and established a single brand store in Chennai.
South India was totally a new area for us. Expanding our presence there meant a lot of challenges, but I saw a future there for my brand, and within a couple of years, our store became the biggest and most popular single brand store, and this encouraged me to open our second Sreeleathers outlet in Purasaiwakkam. Our T. Nagar store is 14,000 square feet and our second store in Pursaiwakkam is 6,000 square feet, and we record a sale of around 5 lakhs pair of shoes in a year. Our target is that 40 percent of Tamil Nadu's population should be wearing our shoes and accessories in the next 25 years, adds the Young Turk.
Dey was greatly inspired by his father and grandfather, who had held firm to their ethics and principles, and the challenge, for him, was to come out of his comfort zone of east India and expand the reach of the iconic brand beyond known realms.
Sushanto Dey: Steering Business Strategy to Drive Growth
Every Business needs an entrepreneur to shake off its old baggage and sculpt change. Sushanto Dey, partner, Sreeleathers, did the same for the well-known footwear brand
Q) Sreeleathers is a household name in Eastern region. How different has been your journey to the South Indian Market?
Dey: It was totally a new area, new culture and totally a new ambience and language. It was a single brand store, which the people of Chennai and Tamil Nadu were seeing for the first time.
2. How has been your response from you Chennai operations?
Dey: The response has been quite overwhelming. People thought we would close our shop in a couple of days. We proved them wrong. Today we are selling around 5 lakh shoes per annum in Chennai alone.
3. From a small shop in Jamshedpur in the year 1952 to the launch of sreeleathersonline.com. How you look at your journey so far?
Dey: When I joined the business in 2005 I was disgruntled with the designs we were selling. We were mostly catering to 35 years and above. However, we started exploring more designs and with the advent of technology we were able to come with more designs. After staying shut for three months during the Covid first wave in 2020, we chalked out a plan to revamp our business and launched our website [www.sreeleathersonline.com]
4. Where do you see Sreeleathers in another 5 years?
Dey: We have plans to come up with new stores in various parts of Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand. We are working on franchise partners at Pondicherry. Our strategy for next 25 years is not to make money but to occupy space in customer's mind.
5) What are you immediate growth plans?
Dey: We want to focus on performance based sports shoes. We plan to have sports line separately so that we can come up with sports shoes for badminton, volleyball, and basketball. The quality would be world class. The price line would be anything around Rs 1500.
6) What are the special plans as you are turning 70 this year?
Dey: We are still in the process of finalising plans to celebrate the occasion. We want to thank our valuable customers in every special way.
