Dand according to the Portuguese Association of Footwear, Components, Leather Articles and Their Substitutes (APICCAPS), in 1974 there were 673 companies in Portugal, responsible for 15,299 jobs.
“Five decades later, the Portuguese footwear industry is made up of 1,171 companies (74% growth since April 25th), responsible for 33,057 jobs (116% growth)”, he highlights.
For the association, the revolution of April 25th “was much more than a political movement that deposed the dictatorship and culminated in the implementation of a democratic regime”: “For Portuguese society it was the greatest promise of hope”, while “for Some sectors of activity, such as footwear, were even starting over again”, he maintains.
Shortly afterwards, in 1975, APICCAPS was born in Porto, founded to represent the footwear, footwear components, leather goods and equipment sectors for these sectors.
The first strategic plan for the sector was drawn up by the association in 1978 and was signed by Miguel Cadilhe and Manuel Baganha, who, in a first x-ray of the national footwear industry, described “an intersectoral entanglement that, in the ‘inputs’, allows an irregular supply in quality, quantity and prices, and which, in ‘outputs’, suffers from the irrationality of an atomized internal market”.
At the time, “unhealthy competition” was identified in the sector, resulting “from the predominance of undersized production units, many of which were in a pre-industrial regime”, to which was added “a management lacking modern methods and techniques, an organization disabled and […] relatively low productivity.”
“Thus began a path of strategic and structured thinking that made a difference in the history of the Portuguese footwear industry”, recalls APICCAPS.
Currently, he highlights, “Portugal exports 90% of its production, the equivalent of 74 million pairs (growth of 1,170% since the Carnation Revolution) worth 1,900 million euros (growth of 54,533%), and contributes positively with 1,300 million euros to balance the Portuguese trade balance”. Additionally, the companies in the ‘cluster’ – made up of the footwear, footwear components and leather goods industries – represent 2.6% of total national exports of goods.
The association also highlights that Portugal is “one of the only countries in Europe where footwear production activity has not decreased”, citing the latest data that indicate that “the industrial core of the ‘cluster’ represents 6% of employment in Portuguese manufacturing industries and 3.2% of its added value”.
“The ‘cluster’ has a high geographic concentration and, in the north of the country, its contribution to manufacturing industries amounts to 10.9% of employment and 7.1% of added value”, he details, specifying that “these values increase to 29.8% and 28.5% in the intermunicipal community of Tâmega e Sousa, where a high percentage of the ‘cluster’ companies are located”.
Recently, the Portuguese footwear sector renewed its strategic vision, taking on the ambition of becoming, in the next decade, “the international reference of the footwear industry and reinforcing Portuguese exports”, and proposing to this end “virtuously combine sophistication and creativity with productive efficiency, based on technological development and management of the international value chain”, in order to guarantee “the future of a sustainable and highly competitive national production base”.
In this sense, the new Strategic Plan of the Footwear Cluster 2030 defined four priorities (Qualification of People and Companies; Sustainable Products and Processes; Flexibility and Quick Response; Active Presence in the Markets), 24 measures and 113 concrete actions to reposition the sector on the scene internationally competitive”, foreseeing an investment of 600 million euros in this process.
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