CLE chairman celebrates French connection as UITIC Congress closes
05/02/2016
UITIC president, Yves Morin, also the chief executive of Lyon-based research and testing organisation CTC, said at the closing ceremony that he was leaving Chennai convinced that India has “footwear spirit, great management and great leaders”, which he said gave him confidence that the Indian footwear industry has “a very promising future”.
In response, Mr Ahmed said his ties to France go back 50 years. He told the tale of his joining his family’s business, tanning and footwear group Farida, in late 1964, with the export of semi-finished leather its main activity at the time. Under his direction, it quickly moved to exporting finished leather instead.
Soon after, at the Semaine International du Cuir in Paris, a distinguished-looking gentleman asked for a sample. “There was, of course, no email in those days,” Mr Ahmed told the congress delegates, “and we relied on the telex machine. And soon after I got back from Paris, a telex arrived from the same gentleman saying that he wanted to place an order for 10,000 square-feet. And then, to my amazement, I saw that it was for Charles Jourdan.”
The CLE chairman said he took the telex into the quietest part of the Farida offices, which happened to be the bathroom, and read the telex message 20 times. Then he went out and bought some Indian silk, which he used as part of the packaging in which he delivered the famous Romans-based high-end shoe designer’s order.
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