Shoes and Accessories - August 2016

The cliche is ‘survival of the fittest’, but being the fittest is not enough. To stay ahead one has to be well-informed and be decisive. This is the need of the hour for a lot of Indian footwear manufacturers who have been heavily relying on the European markets and at the same time promoting their in-house brands.

It was clear to industry observers that the EU markets were going to hit the rock bottom when the Greek economy was bailed out first, and it was clearer when the Alexis Tsipras-led party stormed to power with the clear intention that it was up for a real showdown with what they called the EU troika. The acrimonious and the bleak prospect only emboldened the skeptics in member countries like the UK, France and Italy, and lent them a strong point to campaign for ‘leave EU’. The European nightmare has at last become a reality, and this means more economic uncertainty.

The simple and plain fact is Europe will need time to sort out its own mess, and it apparently means that its members’ fragile economies will consume less. The Chinese had foreseen this and it didn’t take them long to focus on domestic consumption and started looking for investment destinations elsewhere.

The European problem is felt immensely here, and many as a result have started talking about exploring the American market. With easy access to cheap raw material and abundant availability of cheap labour, Indian manufacturers undoubtedly enjoy advantage over countries like Vietnam and China. It, however, should be understood that they definitely need consistent support from the governments in the forms of establishing more institutes to induct and groom designers and schools where labourers can be trained, setting up more testing centres and creating a congenial atmosphere for manufacturers.

With all things in place, it is definite that India’s ambition to be a global manufacturing hub can certainly be a reality.