Khadim’s is a Kolkata footwear brand that sells mostly through franchised shops, with two-thirds of its network in eastern India. Almost everything it sells is cheap: the average pair rings up at about ₹530. It is also no longer the company most articles describe. The wholesale half of the business was split off in 2025 and now trades separately. What remains is a ₹367 crore retail chain of 851 stores.
Khadim’s is a mass-market Indian footwear brand, controlled by the Roy Burman family through Khadim India Limited and listed on the NSE and BSE. Its filed MRP band runs from ₹105 to ₹4,199, but the business realises about ₹527 a pair. After the 2025 demerger it is retail-only: revenue of ₹367.10 crore and profit of ₹3.14 crore in FY2025-26, down 12.2% and 39.6%.
Snapshot
- Founded
- Shop bought in Chitpur, Kolkata, 1965; company incorporated 3 December 1981
- Founder
- Satya Prasad Roy Burman
- Headquarters
- New Town (Rajarhat), Kolkata, West Bengal, India
- Current owner
- Khadim India Limited; promoter group holds 59.89% at 30 June 2026
- Category
- Footwear
- Price band in India
- ₹105 to ₹4,199 MRP, the company’s filed range
- Available in India
- Official — 851 own and franchised stores, and khadims.com
How it started
The name did not come from the family that owns it. In 1965 Satya Prasad Roy Burman bought a small footwear shop in Chitpur, Kolkata called K M Khadim & Company. The previous proprietor’s name stuck.
The company’s own filings never tell that story. Its annual reports date the business to 1981, and the registry agrees: Khadim India Limited was incorporated on 3 December 1981. Both dates are defensible. What is wrong is the shorthand that the Roy Burman family founded a brand called Khadim’s — they bought the name with a shop.
- K M Khadim & CompanyChitpur, Kolkata — bought by S. P. Roy Burman in 1965
- Khadim India LimitedIncorporated 3 December 1981; retail chain begins 1993
- Listed on the NSE and BSE14 November 2017, at ₹688.85 against a ₹750 issue price
- Retail-only companyDistribution demerged into KSR Footwear, 1 April 2025
Sixty years on, the shop network is the business and the factories belong elsewhere.
What they actually make
Almost nothing, on its own account. The FY2024-25 annual report is blunt: “All products sold through Khadim’s retail network are procured only via contract manufacturing and outsourcing arrangements.” The previous year’s report put it at 90% outsourced; CARE Ratings confirmed the same share of FY2025 retail sales.
The 2025 demerger made that permanent. Managing Director Rittick Roy Burman told the FY26 earnings call that the company had moved “the distribution business and manufacturing segment into KSR Footwear Limited”. What stayed behind is the brand and the shops.
- FY2024-25Last combined year: retail ₹418.03 crore, distribution ₹205.71 crore
- 1 April 2025Distribution and manufacturing vest in KSR Footwear Limited
- 27 November 2025KSR lists separately and closes its first day down 41%
- FY2025-26Khadim India ₹367.10 crore; KSR ₹199.95 crore and a ₹12.74 crore loss
The loss-making half left. The half that stayed is still shrinking.
You can read the outsourcing off the label. Khadim’s prints the Legal Metrology declaration on every product page, and three products name three different manufacturers.
| Product | MRP | Manufactured by |
|---|---|---|
| KHADIM Flip Flops for Men | ₹399 | KSR Footwear Limited, Panpur, West Bengal |
| KHADIM Ballerina for Women | ₹699 | Zeba Footwear, Kolkata |
| PRO Sports Shoes for Men | ₹799 | M.H. Industries, Narela, New Delhi |
Product pages on khadims.com, read 22 August 2026, all marketed by Khadim India Ltd., Kolkata.
Moulded basics come from the group’s old Panpur plant, now KSR’s. The rest comes from small contract makers in Kolkata and Delhi.
The listed company called Khadim India Limited now owns essentially no shoe factories. It is a name, a design desk and a shop network.
What Khadim’s costs in India
The filed price band is wide and a little misleading. The mother brand and nine sub-brands, from British Walker and Lazard to Pro and Bonito, carry MRPs between ₹105 and ₹4,199. The realised number tells you where the business actually lives.
- Filed MRP band
- ₹105 to ₹4,199
- Realised price per pair, FY2024-25
- ₹527
- Realised price per pair, H1 FY2025-26
- ₹530
- Checked on
- 22 August 2026
An average of ₹527 against a ₹4,199 ceiling means the volume sits near the floor, and it is drifting lower. The group CFO told the FY26 call that “we have taken some price cut in our products less than INR500”. Operating margin on retail fell from 17.69% in FY2024 to 13.24% in the first half of FY2026.
On the webstore on 22 August 2026, flip flops listed at ₹399 and PRO sports shoes from ₹799 to ₹2,499. Every listing showed price equal to compare-at price, so the site was selling at MRP despite an “up to 50% off” banner.
At ₹530 a pair the useful comparison is the mass end of the market. Relaxo’s Sparx and the cheaper lines at Bata are the shelves a Khadim’s buyer is choosing between. Metro Brands realised ₹1,675 a pair in the June 2026 quarter, roughly three times as much, from a chain that also sells through its own stores. The range sits on our Khadim’s catalogue page.
Who Khadim’s is actually for
This is a brand for a household buying school shoes, work sandals and chappals under ₹1,000 a pair, close to home. It works hardest in the east, where CARE records 65% of the stores. In Kolkata or Patna a Khadim’s shop is a default; in Pune most shoppers have never entered one.
Buy it for plain, cheap footwear from a physical shop with a return path. Skip it if you need running shoes you will genuinely run in, or if you are shopping above ₹3,000, where the brand has no depth and its own realised price says so.
One caution. Roughly 78% of the network, 662 of 851 outlets at 31 March 2026, is franchise-run, so most stores you walk into are not operated by Khadim India Limited.
Reputation and controversies
Start with the claim you see everywhere. Khadim’s is called India’s second largest footwear retailer, and its own annual report prints that with an asterisk: “in terms of number of exclusive retail stores”. Most repetitions drop the footnote, so readers take it to mean second by sales. It never did.
On the store metric itself the claim has now lapsed. Khadim’s had 851 stores at 31 March 2026, having closed around 60 in two years. Metro Brands reached 1,041 by June 2026 and Bata India crossed 2,000 by July 2026. By revenue the gap is wider still.
Shareholders have done badly. The 2017 IPO priced at ₹750 and listed at ₹688.85; the share traded at ₹97.00 on 21 August 2026, worth about ₹178 crore.
What is on the record, and what is not
What is absent matters. The FY2025-26 results carry an unmodified audit opinion from Ray & Ray on both standalone and consolidated statements, with no emphasis of matter — no qualification to report. We found no regulatory action, and no enforcement case naming counterfeit Khadim’s footwear. We found no published labour findings either, which reflects the absence of published supply-chain audits rather than clean factories.
Three FY2024-25 profit figures for Khadim’s circulate, all correct on their own basis. This page uses the filed, audited standalone figure of ₹5.20 crore; CARE’s larger ₹19.26 crore is the retail business alone, before the ₹14.20 crore loss from the discontinued distribution arm.
Buying it in India
Buy from the store or the brand site
The brand sells through its own 851 stores and khadims.com, not open marketplaces. That channel discipline is why counterfeit risk is low.
There is no hologram to look for
Khadim’s publishes no authentication tell — no security label, QR code or box marking appears on its site or in its filings.
Read the declaration instead
Genuine stock carries “Marketed by Khadim India Ltd., RDB Primarc Techpark, New Town, Kolkata – 700156” with a named manufacturer and an HSN code. It is a labelling rule rather than an anti-fake feature, but it is checkable.
Treat deep discounts as a question
On 22 August 2026 the brand’s own site listed every product at MRP, nothing struck through. A third-party listing at half MRP is not automatically a bargain.
Note what the label leaves out
None of the three product pages we checked on 22 August 2026 carried a country of origin, a manufacture date or customer care details. The declaration is incomplete.
Common questions
Is Khadim’s an Indian brand?
Yes. Khadim India Limited is headquartered in Kolkata, listed on the NSE and BSE, and controlled by the Roy Burman family, who held 59.89% of the equity at 30 June 2026. Its named manufacturers are Indian too.
Who owns Khadim’s?
The promoter group, led by Chairman and Managing Director Siddhartha Roy Burman, holds 59.89%, mostly through Khadim Development Company Private Limited. None of it is pledged, and the brand has never been sold to a larger group.
Is Khadim’s really India’s second largest footwear retailer?
Not any more, and never by sales. The claim was always footnoted as being by number of exclusive stores. At 851 stores in March 2026 it sits behind Metro Brands at 1,041 and Bata at about 2,000.
Why did Khadim’s split into two companies?
The wholesale arm was losing money. It moved to KSR Footwear Limited from 1 April 2025 and listed separately on 27 November 2025. KSR then reported a ₹12.74 crore loss on ₹199.95 crore of revenue.
Are Khadim’s shoes made by Khadim’s?
Mostly no. About 90% of the retail range is outsourced, and the group’s factories left the company in the 2025 demerger. Khadim India supplies the designs and sells the result through its stores.
How we research and verify brand audits: our methodology.
References
- Business Standard, 7 December 2013 — the 1965 purchase of K M Khadim & Company in Chitpur
- Forbes India, Hidden Gems — the founder, the Chitpur shop and where the name came from
- MCA registry record, CIN L19129WB1981PLC034337 — incorporation on 3 December 1981
- Khadim India Limited, Annual Report 2024-25 — outsourcing policy, MRP band, sub-brands, the demerger and the footnoted “2nd largest” claim
- Khadim India Limited, Annual Report 2023-24 — 90% of retail requirements outsourced
- Khadim India Q4 FY2026 earnings call transcript, 1 June 2026 — 851 stores, 189 company-owned, store closures and price cuts below ₹500
- Audited financial results, year ended 31 March 2026 — revenue ₹367.10 crore, profit ₹3.14 crore, unmodified audit opinion
- Whalesbook on KSR Footwear’s FY2026 filing — ₹199.95 crore revenue and a ₹12.74 crore loss
- HDFC Sky, 27 November 2025 — KSR Footwear’s listing day and its 41% first-day fall
- CARE Ratings, 13 January 2026 — realised price per pair, margin trend and 65% eastern concentration
- Khadim’s, PRO Sports Shoes for Men product page — Legal Metrology declaration and manufacturer address
- Khadim’s catalogue feed, read 22 August 2026 — listed prices equal to compare-at prices across the range
- Chittorgarh, Khadim India IPO record — the ₹750 issue price and the ₹688.85 listing
- Screener.in, Khadim India Ltd — share price of ₹97.00 on 21 August 2026 and market capitalisation
- Investing.com on Metro Brands Q1 FY2027 slides, 4 August 2026 — 1,041 stores and ₹1,675 average realisation
- Reuters via Yahoo Finance, 14 July 2026 — Bata India crossing 2,000 stores
- Shareholding pattern, quarter ended 30 June 2026 — 59.89% promoter holding, none pledged
Khadim’s is more honest about itself than its coverage is. The filings admit the retail range is outsourced, and the “second largest” line carries its own footnote. At ₹527 a pair this is cheap footwear sold near home, and for school shoes and chappals under ₹1,000 it does that job well.
What deserves scepticism is the size of the brand in a buyer’s mind. Revenue is falling, profit dropped 39.6% last year, and the store count is shrinking. Anyone quoting ₹660 crore or “second largest” describes a company that no longer exists.
Buy the ₹399 chappal without hesitation and treat the ₹2,499 sports shoe as an open question — a realised price of ₹527 tells you which end this company knows how to make.
