21 Apr 2017
Cluster of footwear already worth 2,500 million euros
It is a particularly dynamic, extroverted cluster, and it is achieving a truly international dimension. Since 2010, the shoe cluster has grown 49% in foreign markets. But there are significant increases in other equally relevant areas.
It is the footwear sector that has contributed the most to the international dimension of the cluster. In five years' time, sales increased from just over 1,200 million euros to about 1,923 million. In addition, more than 30 new markets have been added to a particularly complex geography of exports. Today, the sector exports almost all exports to 152 countries, on all continents. It is, however, the sector of leather goods and leather goods that has been more dynamic. Since 2010, exports have almost tripled and in the last year amounted to more than 150 million euros. On the other hand, the sector of components, probably absorbed by the increase of orders from Portuguese footwear companies, continues in the "gauge" of the forty million euros, even registering a slight decrease in sales abroad in the order of 0.9% in recent years.
In terms of employment, good signs have also been recorded. Since 2010, 9,238 jobs have been created. In the row, the number of jobs increased from 34,602 to 42,249 by the end of 2014. This figure will have risen to 43,840 as of 2015, according to APICCAPS estimates, based on figures from the Ministry of Labour.
With a strong geographical agglomeration, the production of footwear is distributed mainly by two poles centred in the counties of Felgueiras and Guimarães, on the one hand, and Santa Maria da Feira, Oliveira de Azeméis and São João da Madeira, on the other. Together, these five counties represent more than three quarters of sector employment. Further south, in the area of Benedita, there is another pole, of less quantitative expression.
Average size of companies
The average size of the Portuguese footwear companies is 26 workers, above the average for the footwear industry in the European Union and the average of the national manufacturing industry. As an industry in which small and medium-sized enterprises predominate, footwear is therefore not one of the industries where the smallest units predominate.
Qualifications
Over the past two decades, the cluster has undergone a profound change in the qualification profile of its human resources: skilled workers have more than doubled their share, and medium and senior officials have risen from 3% to 9%. Without this change, the strategy for the valorisation of Portuguese production that was implemented would hardly have been successful. In this context, the industry has also made more use of industrial property protection instruments.
The component industry has a geographical distribution similar to that of footwear, although it extends to other counties. The leather goods industry is more dispersed, with important centres in Ponte de Lima, Santa Maria da Feira, Braga and Castelo de Paiva. The average size of the companies in these industries is clearly smaller than in the footwear industry.
More than 200 companies created
At another level, more than 200 new companies were created in the last half of the decade, especially in the footwear industry, where 185 new projects were born. One of the particularities is directly associated with a new regional dynamic. In fact, the footwear cluster has contributed to a better regional balance, through the creation of dozens of industrial units in the interior of the country, in regimes such as Castelo de Paiva, Celorico de Bastos, Paredes de Coura, Pinhel or Seia.
It is the footwear sector that has contributed the most to the international dimension of the cluster. In five years' time, sales increased from just over 1,200 million euros to about 1,923 million. In addition, more than 30 new markets have been added to a particularly complex geography of exports. Today, the sector exports almost all exports to 152 countries, on all continents. It is, however, the sector of leather goods and leather goods that has been more dynamic. Since 2010, exports have almost tripled and in the last year amounted to more than 150 million euros. On the other hand, the sector of components, probably absorbed by the increase of orders from Portuguese footwear companies, continues in the "gauge" of the forty million euros, even registering a slight decrease in sales abroad in the order of 0.9% in recent years.
In terms of employment, good signs have also been recorded. Since 2010, 9,238 jobs have been created. In the row, the number of jobs increased from 34,602 to 42,249 by the end of 2014. This figure will have risen to 43,840 as of 2015, according to APICCAPS estimates, based on figures from the Ministry of Labour.
With a strong geographical agglomeration, the production of footwear is distributed mainly by two poles centred in the counties of Felgueiras and Guimarães, on the one hand, and Santa Maria da Feira, Oliveira de Azeméis and São João da Madeira, on the other. Together, these five counties represent more than three quarters of sector employment. Further south, in the area of Benedita, there is another pole, of less quantitative expression.
Average size of companies
The average size of the Portuguese footwear companies is 26 workers, above the average for the footwear industry in the European Union and the average of the national manufacturing industry. As an industry in which small and medium-sized enterprises predominate, footwear is therefore not one of the industries where the smallest units predominate.
Qualifications
Over the past two decades, the cluster has undergone a profound change in the qualification profile of its human resources: skilled workers have more than doubled their share, and medium and senior officials have risen from 3% to 9%. Without this change, the strategy for the valorisation of Portuguese production that was implemented would hardly have been successful. In this context, the industry has also made more use of industrial property protection instruments.
The component industry has a geographical distribution similar to that of footwear, although it extends to other counties. The leather goods industry is more dispersed, with important centres in Ponte de Lima, Santa Maria da Feira, Braga and Castelo de Paiva. The average size of the companies in these industries is clearly smaller than in the footwear industry.
More than 200 companies created
At another level, more than 200 new companies were created in the last half of the decade, especially in the footwear industry, where 185 new projects were born. One of the particularities is directly associated with a new regional dynamic. In fact, the footwear cluster has contributed to a better regional balance, through the creation of dozens of industrial units in the interior of the country, in regimes such as Castelo de Paiva, Celorico de Bastos, Paredes de Coura, Pinhel or Seia.
Source:
Apiccaps