Italian major plans base in TN footwear park

Italprogetti Engineering, an Italian tanning and processing machinery major, has evinced interest in bringing five to six Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to set up manufacturing units at the footwear component park in Irrungattukottai near Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

All the units, under the consortium of Italprogetti, put together may bring in an investment of around Rs 40-50 crore in their manufacturing facilities at the footwear component park.

M Rafeeque Ahmed, chairman, Tamil Nadu State Council, Ficci, and chairman, Farida Group, said Italprogetti had agreed to play the lead role in a consortium of Italian SMEs, including leather machinery and component manufacturers, for putting up their manufacturing units at the component park.

Two Italian SMEs have already agreed to be part of the consortium and Italprogetti expects to rope in a few more in the coming weeks, he added.

While these units are expected to generate about 5,000 direct jobs, they will also have huge potential for creating indirect employment opportunities, Ahmed said, adding that the Council for Leather Exports (CLE), the implementing agency for the footwear component park, had agreed to provide the land at the park and extend help in bringing in the required investments.

A number of shoe component manufacturers, including a Brazilian firm engaged in the manufacture of thermoplastic rubber for shoes, will be setting up units in the 50-acre footwear component park.

The setting up of operations by Italian firms in the component park is expected to help Indian manufacturers, which have been sourcing components from Italian firms, to reduce their time and costs of operation, and enhance competitiveness and productivity. The growing international investment in leather manufacturing in India comes close on the heels of robust export performance by the footwear segment, which is expected to become the engine of the leather industry's growth in the years ahead.

Footwear is expected to account for 65 per cent of an estimated $7 billion in leather and leather product exports by 2010-11. Total leather and leather products exports are expected to touch $3 billion at the end of March 2007.

During the first six months of the current fiscal, leather footwear exports increased to Rs 2,075.85 crore ($452.05 million) from Rs 1,656.72 crore ($379.56 million), while total exports of leather and leather products reached Rs 6,844.63 crore ($1490.54 million) from Rs 6,056.25 crore ($1387.51 million) in the same period of the previous fiscal year, according to CLE.