Nike, Adidas shoes maker Pou Chen to invest nearly $281 million in India
17/04/2023 05:52
By Praveen Paramasivam
CHENNAI, April 17 (Reuters) -
A subsidiary of the world's largest maker of branded sports
footwear Pou Chen 9904.TW will invest 23.02 billion rupees
($280.86 million) to set up a manufacturing facility in Tamil
Nadu, the Indian state government said on Monday.
The Taiwanese footwear maker for brands like Nike, Adidas,
New Balance, and Timberland manufactured and shipped over 272
million pairs of shoes in the financial year 2022 globally, up
nearly 14% from a year earlier. It already has plants in
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam.
"We hope this would be the first of many investments to come
(in India)," Pou Chen Vice President George Liu said in a
meeting streamed online with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.
Stalin.
The investment, which would create about 20,000 jobs in
Tamil Nadu over a span of 12 years, would come nearly a year
after Taiwanese peer Hong Fu Group signed a deal to invest 10
billion rupees to make footwear in the southern state.
Tamil Nadu made 45% of India's footwear exports over the
last five years with many brands, including Giorgio Armani and
Gucci, making their products or sourcing raw materials from the
state, according to a government agency report.
Other global names like Apple suppliers Foxconn, Salcomp and
Pegatron have also been ramping up their production in Tamil
Nadu and the broader country, as they look to diversify their
manufacturing footprint away from China and Taiwan.
Separately, Pou Chen planned to cut around 6,000 jobs at its
Ho Chi Minh City plant in Vietnam due to low demand, Reuters
reported in February, citing two local officials.
($1 = 81.9630 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Sohini
Goswami)
((Praveen.Paramasivam@thomsonreuters.com; +91 867-525-3569;))