coimbatore his familys business roots run deep in kerala but when he decided to establish his own footprint in the countrys footwear business in 2012 he chose coimbatore as base but a lastminute hitch forced him to put up his first plant near sulurpeta in andhra pradesh within a year he had established his companys second plant in coimbatoresince then there has been no looking back for v k c noushad now managing director of walkaroo international private limited today walkaroo is the largest footwear brand in south india the third largest in india and indias largest pu polyurethane footwear brand it has 12 plants across the country three in coimbatore alonethe market was then full of hawaii chappals and later pvc pu was just emerging as an alternative i started off with the latest recalls noushad on his decadelong journey in the indian nonleather footwear market we decided to democratize fashion variety at affordable prices was our motto since pu products were light weight and comfortable there was immediate market acceptance he says though youngsters were the initial target we soon added products for every member of a family says noushadstarting off with footwear outlets in tamil nadu the company soon added kerala karnataka and andhra pradesh before reaching out to maharashtra west bengal and odisha now walkaroo has become a panindian brandof the 12 plants kerala and karnataka have three each and gujarat and haryana one each and a plant will be set up in rajasthan to make flipflops the company closed last fiscal with a turnover of 1850 crore and this year it hopes to achieve a topline of 2200 crorewalkaroos footwear is also exported to the middle east myanmar singapore and malaysia it also established a plant in bangladesh in 2019 the duty structure in bangladesh is so high with an import duty of almost 100 one cannot export to that country and make money says noushadtoday walkaroo is the largest footwear brand in bangladesh this year we are studying the african market including countries such as tanzania we will establish a plant in africa shortly he saysthe going has always not been smooth until covid struck we had adopted a production based on sales projection with the onset of lockdowns the buying pattern changed with people opting for simple footwear we were stuck we changed our planning from sales forecasting to demand driven approach we invested in technology and brought consultants to change our production plan when the second lockdown was lifted we were ready he sayswith the tamil nadu government looking to tap the emerging global nonleather footwear market and reaching out to taiwanese companies noushad sees a big growth opportunity for the state as well as for walkaroo knitting technology has now come into play in a big way for athletic shoes besides those for women and kids we are lucky to be located near tirupur and have established separate production lines for knitted products in our existing plants in coimbatore he sayswhile