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Lovemore Zigara, Midlands Correspondent
ZIMBABWE’S biggest shoe manufacturer, Bata Shoe Company, has resumed refurbishment of its retail outlets in major cities and towns as part of its measures to improve brand appeal.
The refurbishment and modernisation of Bata Stores began in 2012 with a facelift of its Leopold Takawira Branch in Harare but stalled last year as the company sought to evaluate its impact.
Bata managing director Mr Ehsan Zaman told Business Chronicle that the shoe manufacturer has already started refurbishing its Chitungwiza branch and plans are underway to roll out the exercise to other towns such as Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare and Zvishavane among others.
“We have a plan to upgrade many of our stores and as we speak we have started the exercise in Chitungwiza where we intend to make the shop bigger and spacious for the convenience of our customers,” he said.
“We will continue to do the same in Gweru, Bulawayo, Masvingo, Zvishavane and Mutare. Our customers in these areas and others where we are going will definitely see Bata in a better condition than it was before.”
The Bata boss could not quantify the cost of the exercise, which he said would be done in phases.
“We have also tried to improve the services in our outlets through training our workforce to ensure that they sell better, which we call Bata 5 step Training Programme, which is the basic.
“We’ve already completed that and it is giving us positive results,” said Mr Zaman.
— @lavuzigara1.
Online Reporter