Bata India Ltd have received approval from their shareholders to include a clause in their Articles of Association to buy back their own shares from the market and have announced a number of measures to control costs and enhance returns.

Chairman A L Mudaliar said that although the Companies (amendment) Act 1999 includes the provision that a company might purchase their own shares or other specified securities, Bata India did not have this provision in their Articles of Association.

This authorises the board to launch a buy-back as and when the need arises and does not mean that the company would soon go for a buy-back, he said.

Mudaliar said the company was focusing on product innovation in order to attract customers from all parts of India to their varied and regularly updated footwear lines.

He also said a number of measures had been introduced to minimise costs and improve returns. Apart from centralisation of purchasing functions, Mudaliar said the company would henceforth maintain closer coordination of the merchandising, product development, planning, manufacturing and distribution functions.

Optimum utilisation of distribution and transport systems and renegotiation of terms of carriage and disposal of obsolete machinery by the introduction of a new series of moulds based on market requirements were the other measures being taken, he said.