Kolkata, Jul 18 (IANS): Bata India is aggressively penetrating into footwear markets of tier III and IV cities in order to reach out to consumers in untapped markets, a company official said on Tuesday.

"We are aggressively penetrating into the footwear markets of tier III and IV towns and have increased our focus to improve the performance of the single town Bata stores," company Chairman Uday Khanna told shareholders at the 84th annual general meeting here.

He also said the footwear retail industry in India was accelerating and it provided immense scope for the company to reach out to different kinds of consumers in untapped markets of semi-urban and rural areas.

Khanna said the footwear major had adopted a dual strategy of driving same store growth while adding new retail stores in malls, high street locations.

"The changing customer expectations, technological advancement and rise in fashion conscious youngsters have given a new business dimension to the footwear industry," said Khanna.

"A majority of our population is still living in rural areas and we wish to seize this opportunity by rapidly increasing our presence," he added.