The Taiwanese company is currently functioning at just a quarter of its capacity in its factory in Addis Abeba Employees of George Shoe Factory, located in Bole Lemi industrial zone, are performing their regular duty towards producing the leather shoes that are to go international soon.
The Taiwanese shoemaker, George Shoe Corporation Plc, made its first export of 15,000 pairs of ladies shoes last Tuesday.
The company – currently producing 4,000 pairs a day out of a capacity for 16,000 – had been on a month long pilot production, according to Berhanu Serjabo, communications director at the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI).
George Shoe came to Ethiopia with plans to construct three shoe factories – in Modjo, Adama and Addis Abeba – at an outlay of 50 million dollars. Its initial investment was 150 million Br when it started manufacturing at its first plant in Ethiopia, at the Bole Lemi Industrial Zone (15kms outside of Addis Abeba).
The company manufactures its shoes with a ‘Made in Ethiopia’ label at two factories it rents at Bole Lemi. The shoes will be sold at the initial price of 13 dollars a pair.
There are five factories at Bole Lemi, built at a cost of 349 million Br; the remaining 15 will require an additional 1.76 billion Br and 186ha of land, which is already being prepared.
The company currently employs 800 workers, 500 of whom have already received training from Chinese footwear professionals, says Brehanu. The company is now moving on to developing an industry zone for its own use on a 100ha plot it is about to receive in Modjo (73kms from Addis Abeba). The zone will have a tannery and other finished product factories, which could employ up to 65,000 workers. All products will be for export, Berhanu said.
Currently, there are 20 footwear manufacturers in Ethiopia – including George Shoe, Huajian Shoe Factory, Tikur Abay Shoe S.C, Anbessa Shoe Factory S.C and Oliver Footwear Factory – already manufacturing and exporting their products; five others are in the process of entering the market. There are also 32 tanneries in operation, with two more expected to join the market soon, according to the Berhanu. A delegation of Chinese shoemakers is also expected to come to Ethiopia sometime around September, in order to see the potential.
George Shoe’s major destinations are the United States and China, Berhanu suggests. Major destinations for Ethiopian leather and leather export products are China, Italy, Germany, England, India and the United States.
The company will help us to catch up with the Growth & Transformation Plan (GTP), Berhanu said, which is an annual export revenue of 496.9 million dollar from leather and leather products in the final year, 2014/15. The target for 2013/14 is 416.8 million dollar; however, the 10 month report for the year indicated a far smaller 120.4 million dollars. Nevertheless, that is a more than double increase from the 56 million dollars revenue in 2009/10