Marcelo Villagran has started the second part of his unenviable mission - to rejuvenate the 80-year-old shoe brand to make the 20-25 olds, and even the teens, fall for it.the next five years will be all about expansion for this legendary brand. At 9:52 am, shares of Bata India were trading 0.97 per cent up at Rs 465 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Bata will open 70-100 stores of at least 5,000



sq ft every year, introduce almost four designs every day, and push its online sales to shed its image as a low-cost functional footwear brand that appeals to the 40-plus age group. Hundreds of unviable stores have been closed and have spawned into large-format outlets, the product portfolio has been overhauled with the help of Bata's global design centre and refined manufacturing and sourcing strategies, Villagran helped Bata to come out of three years of continuous losses that peaked at 62 crore in 2004 and steadily grow since then. In 2010, its net profit rose 42% year-on-year to 95 crore. The company scrip too bounced from 31-35 in 2002 to 460.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange at Friday's closing.Based on the story published in ET.