All Trade & Sourcing articles – Page 5
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Article
How a group of Polish shoemakers is seeking to relaunch their industry
Created in 2019, Polska Grupa Producentów Obuwia (PGPO) is a proactive grouping of more than 50 Polish shoemakers largely based in the southern province of Malopolskie, the country’s main footwear cluster, aiming to promote their industry which has been badly hit by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. ...
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About 400 Turkish footwear factories were destroyed in February’s earthquakes
Some 400 footwear factories were destroyed in the cluster of Antakya during the two earthquakes, with respective magnitudes of 7.8 and 7.7, that hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Feb. 6. 2023, according to Berke Içten, the chairman of the association of Turkish footwear manufacturers, TASD. The plants represent ...
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Article
Pouyuen Vietnam to axe 6,000 jobs
Pouyuen Vietnam, one of Vietnam’s largest shoemakers, will cut 6,000 jobs due to a decline in orders, the news agency AFP reported citing a document of the labor department of Ho Chi Minh City’s local government. Pouyuen Vietnam, which is owned by the Taiwanese group Pou Chen, produces for Nike ...
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News briefs
Brazilian footwear production seen up 1.6% this year
Brazilian footwear production is expected to grow by 1.6 percent this year to more than 860 million pairs, according to Abicalçados, the Brazilan footwear association. In January, Brazilian footwear manufacturers exported 14.63 million pairs, up by 4.5 percent year-on-year, generating $117.9 million in revenues, up by 16.6 percent. Abicalçados noted ...
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How a new collection has prompted Safety Jogger to review its supply chain
Safety Jogger, the leading brand of the Belgian footwear and apparel company Cortina, launched in November 2022 a workwear collection as part of its brand extension policy and the initiative has led the company to reconsider its sourcing policy and reduce its reliance on China. At Expoprotection, an international exhibition ...
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News briefs
Indian footwear exports surge
In the nine months running from April to December 2022, Indian exports of leather products and footwear rose by 16.55 percent year-over-year to $4.092 billion. In rupee, the increase reached 24.99 percent, according to the Council For Leather Exports (CLE). During the period, exports of leather footwear grew by 26.56 ...
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Skechers looks to produce in India as Q4 sales jump 14%
Skechers said it is planning to begin production in India, one of its fastest growing markets in the Asia Pacific region. Sales in the country displayed “particular strength” in the fourth quarter of 2022, as the company’s overall top line jumped by 13.5 percent to $1,878.8 million billion to reach ...
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News briefs
Pakistan's inflation at 48-year high
Pakistan’s consumer prices grew by 27.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in January compared to an increase of 24.5 percent in the previous month and a 13.0 percent rise in January 2022, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. It was the highest annual inflation rate since May 1975. Month-on-month, ...
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News briefs
Indonesia and EU aim to reach a free trade deal in 2023
The European Union and Indonesia aim to conclude a free trade agreement by the end of 2023 despite numerous trade disputes, said Vincent Piket, the EU’s ambassador in Jakarta. Piket told journalists that European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen and the Indonesian President Joko Widodo had decided in the ...
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News briefs
Ecuador, Mexico free trade talks at ‘dead end’
Talks to reach a free trade agreement between Ecuador and Mexico are at a “dead end”, according to the Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso. Lasso said that the Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had informed him that Mexican banana and shrimp producers are opposing a free trade deal. Ecuador had ...
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C-Suite interview: Producers and retailers have to work together to prosper
In a wide-ranging interview, Bart van Helvoirt, the co-founder and CEO of Unlimited Footwear Group (UFG), outlines his views on the overall economic situation, the evolution of the supply chain and the shifting relationship between shoe makers, resellers and end users. Before discussing about your company and ...
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Article
Russia plans to resume footwear imports from North Korea
Russia is considering resuming the import of clothes and footwear from North Korea, suspended several decades ago, the Russian state news outlet Ria Novosti reported, citing the Russian embassy in Pyongyang. Russia is very interested in purchasing goods from North Korea, including garments and shoes, the embassy said, adding that ...
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Article
Russian children’s footwear market faces turmoil
The bankruptcy of Russia’s leading manufacturer of children’s footwear heralds harsh times for the industry, which is facing supply issues, higher costs and a shrinking product line. Skorokhod, a St. Petersburg-based shoe factory, has gone bust, dragged down by the weight of its debts. It was one of the largest ...
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Article
Birkenstock to invest €110m in Pasewalk plant
Birkenstock now expects to invest about €110 million in its new German production site in Pasewalk, scheduled to come on stream in autumn 2023. The investment is a record for the company and significantly above the initial estimate for the project. The German footwear group described the investment in the ...
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Article
How reshoring to Spain is being hampered by labor and capacity shortage
Demand to reshore footwear manufacturing from Asia to Southern Europe, and especially to Spain, is growing, but the Iberian country is lacking the capacity needed to significantly boost production, while exports of Spanish made shoes are back to pre-pandemic levels. “We are at full capacity and there is no more ...
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Italian shoemakers start using the VCS self-assessment ESG program
VCS (Verified & Certified Steps), a software package allowing the self-assessment of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performances launched by Assocalzaturifici, the Italian footwear association, is currently being tested by three Italian shoemakers. “We chose three companies of different sizes and with different business models” for the pilot tests, explained ...
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News briefs
Turkish lira falls to record low against the dollar
The Turkish lira fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar after the Turkish central bank cut its policy rate, the one-week repo auction rate, to 12 percent from a previous 13 percent, as it pointed to a global economic slowdown and the increased risk of recession. The currency ...
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EU expects to strike a trade deal with Indonesia in 2024
The European Union expects to be able to reach a free trade agreement with Indonesia within two years, despite a trade dispute regarding palm oil and nickel, according the European Commission’s Executive Vice President and Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis. Dombrovskis believes it is possible to reach a comprehensive economic ...
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News briefs
Prada buys a stake in the tannery Superior
Prada has purchased a 43.65 percent stake in Superior, a Tuscan tannery specialized in calfskin processing, for an undisclosed amount. Superior has recently focused its investments on process digitization and a sustainable development plan centered on the circular economy, energy efficiency and water resource protection. According to the terms of ...
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How a Serbian shoemaker is benefiting from Russia’s need for new suppliers
The huge exodus of Western brands out of Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 24, has created a void benefiting to companies from countries non abiding to Western sanctions. Thanks to tight historical and cultural ties, Serbia continues to trade with Russia, even though the country has ...