Funding for British footwear firms slashed
29/05/2014
As the UK Trade and Industry accredited trade organisation for the footwear sector, the BFA has responsibility for the management of export grants at Project Sole New York, GDS, Magic/ Platform Las Vegas, the MICAM, Sole Commerce New York and MICAM Shanghai.
It also has access to funding to provide services such as marketing and training.
“The footwear sector saw a considerable increase in the amount of money available to companies using the Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) during the latter half of 2013-2014,” said the BFA.
“The increase had a positive effect on the number of grants available to British brands attending key shows and allowed the BFA and several British brands to launch at new events and, for the first time, at a trade show in China - MICAM Shanghai in September 2013.
“It is estimated that every £1 spent via the TAP scheme a total of £35 came back in terms of sales.”
However, for the financial year from April 2014 to March 2015, the increases will not be sustained and funding that was expected to be carried over from last year’s second half budgets into this fiscal year will now not be available.
“The BFA will still have grants and funding available to support our members but total funding will be down by over 30%,” it said.
“For the foreseeable future we therefore advise all companies planning to use the TAP scheme to ensure they make the decision about which events they wish to attend as early as possible, both to secure stands and importantly TAP grants where these are available, as most are expected to be allocated well before the event itself.”
In October, the BFA reported that Northamptonshire-based leather shoe brands such as Cheaney, Loake and Crockett & Jones were enjoying rocketing sales.
Share this story:
