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SOURCING & SUPPLY CHAIN
T
he president of the Spanish footwear
manufacturers’ association (FICE), Rafael Calvo, has
said that the weakness in the economy in Spain is
making life difficult for footwear manufacturers, but
that he believes a strategy focusing on quality, design,
research and development and export markets will help the
industry come through.
In comments to local media during the summer, Mr Calvo
said: “Consumption has stopped, even though shoes are a
product of primary necessity. However, for some years now,
we have been doing the right things: investing in innovation,
in promoting our brands, in technology and in opening up
new markets. It’s been tremendously hard work, but in the
last few years we’ve made this a stable sector and we’ve
even been able to create some jobs.”
Commitment to R&D
Towards the end of last year, Spain’s national statistics
institute, the INE, published figures that show the level of
investment the industries in the country’s fashion-focused
manufacturing sector (including footwear) put into research
and development (R&D) the previous year. Overall
investment of
€
83.7 million in 2010 represented a fall of
8.3% compared to the year before. Companies in the
fashion sector had, collectively, 2,054 employees dedicated
to R&D in 2010, a fall of 15.7% compared to the year before.
Also, only 235 companies carried out any R&D work,
according to INE, a decline of 28.8%.
With what we know now about the state of the Spanish
economy, it will surprise few people that companies were
cutting back. However, while garment manufacture reduced
its R&D spend by 12.3% and textile manufacture also
registered a fall (of 7.8%), the Spanish footwear and leather
sector bucked the trend by increasing its spend on R&D that
year by 3.6%. Of the three industries, footwear and leather
WORLD FOOTWEAR | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012
The decline of the Spanish economy
has sent shockwaves across Europe.
The long-serving president of the
national footwear industry federation,
Rafael Calvo, has said the industry had
to adjust early to the new economic
realities, and is strong enough to survive
the crisis.
Survival
strategy
Oriental appeal. Chinese buyers are now the preferred choice
of Spanish footwear brands because sales in China bring the
best unit-price, better even than sales in the US.
CREDIT: GDS