INDIAN FOOTWEAR INDUSTRY

Fueling the Indian Leather Industry to Greater Heights

PRODUCTION & MANPOWER CAPACITY

1.Large Manufacturing Base

India currently manufactures 2065 million pairs of footwear per year and is currently exporting about 95 million pairs. Interestingly, nearly 95% of its production goes to meet domestic demand where the per capita consumption touched 1.6 Pairs in 2001-02 from a paltry 0.12 pairs in 1990-91.

Footwear exported from India include dress shoes, casuals, moccasins, sport shoes, horrachies, sandals, ballerinas, boots, sandals besides chappals made of rubber, plastic, P.V.C. and other materials.

Estimated Annual Footwear Production in India

Source: Central Leather Research Institute,(CLRI) India

1995-96

• Footwear consumption: 1680 million pairs (96%)


• Footwear Production: 1740 million pairs


• Footwear Export: 60 million pairs
  

2005-06

• Footwear Production: 2065 million pairs


• Footwear Export: 92 million pairs


• Footwear Consumption: 1973 million pairs (95.5%)
  

2. The Manpower Advantage

• Availability of skilled & motivated workforce


• Cost competitive Monthly Wages of between USD 60 - 80 for unskilled staff and USD 90 - 120 for Skilled staff


• Cost of the Social Security Measures with contributions as % of wages totals to only 15% - 17%


• Average Cost to the Company for Unskilled staff totals to USD 70 - 100 and Skilled staff to USD 110 - 140


• Population between 15 to 59 yrs is about 60%


• 9.1 % of the total population is unemployed


• Women comprise more than 50% in footwear industry.


• Work force understands English


• Adequate social security measures are in-built

Employment in the Indian Footwear Industry - 2005 (Source:CLRI)

• Total Number of Units - 501 production units in small, medium and large scale sectors


• Total employment - 1.1 million people

3. Large Centers Of Production

Leather production centers are spread out through out the country but the southern state of Tamilnadu accounts for having the lion's share of nearly 46% of the total Indian produce with key production units located in hotspots like Ambur, Ranipet, Vaniyambadi, Tiruchi and Dindigul.

Northern India: Delhi, Uttar Pradesh - Agra, Noida, Kanpur

Western India: Maharashtra - Mumbai

Southern India: Tamil Nadu - Chennai, Ranipet, Ambur

Agra with a century-old tradition of handmade footwear production has transformed now with several modern factories dotting the Agra skyline.

Kanpur originally known for producing heavy footwear for industrial and military use, has seen the emergence of modern shoe factories producing classical dress and casual shoes mainly for export.

Chennai and the nearby towns of Ambur and Ranipet boast of a modern and robust footwear industry comprising of fully equipped factories churning out indigenously designed, branded shoes for markets abroad.

4. Footwear & Footwear Component Parks

One Footwear park under the Special Economic Zone in Chennai to house 25 production units with a capacity to produce 200,000 pairs a day is being set up near Chennai. Similarly, tTwo Footwear component parks - one in Chennai and another in Agra - with a capacity to house about 20 units each is coming up to tide over the footwear component supply demands

There has been active interest in collaborating with Indian Footwear companies from European countries like Italy, Spain and Portugal. Some of the recent Footwear components Joint Ventures include Mondial, Italy; Suolificio Malaspina, Italy; Fagus, Germany; Lammertz Industirenadel GmbH, Germany; Texon UK Limited, UK; Zahonero Virgili SL, Spain; Obrador Adhesives Internacional SL, Spain; Conceria Virginia, Italy; Top Fondi, Italy; Xie zhan Moulds, Dongguan, China; etc.