Thai Footwear Association urges more emphasis on branding
Thailand’s footwear industry will need to make more stylish, better quality products if it is to rise to the challenge posed by other Asian producers in world markets, the President of the Thai Footwear Association, Surasak Pongtawewirat, said last week.
The warning followed the Association’s projection that Thai footwear exports this year will only be 1% to 2% up on the Bt37 billion ($831 million) earned in 2000 - despite an expected upturn in orders before the end of the year.
Speaking to the national press, Surasak noted the success of China, Indonesia and Vietnam in manufacturing athletic footwear for export markets – especially at the low-cost end of the market where their low wage overheads gave them a particular edge. This had largely been achieved at the expense of Thailand’s exporters, Surasak said, whose higher wage costs made them less competitive in the international arena.
The country’s export prospects are further being hindered by the footwear industry’s inability to keep pace with changes in fashion, Surasak said. Whereas Chinese producers are consistently able to turn out footwear in the latest styles, Thai manufacturers are continually several months behind the times – principally because they are unable to produce new moulds fast enough. Together with higher wage levels, this had resulted in 40% of small- to medium-sized footwear makers going out of business in the previous three years.
To counter the situation, Surasak said Thai producers should move upmarket. Unlike China, which essentially copied Western styles, Thailand has a strong reputation in the field of footwear design and is responsible for turning out more successful designers than any other Asian country. If this were combined with a greater emphasis on branding and quality, it could provide the key to Thai producers moving into more expensive markets and being able to abandon the low cost sector for good.
Expanding on the theme, Narong Chokwatana, the association's adviser, said he was confident Thai shoemakers could compete more effectively on a world scale. However, greater co-operation between producers would be needed first. By banding together, manufacturers would be able to accept bigger orders, Narong said – the end result being a stronger, more export-oriented industry. As a first step towards this, the association had appointed five committees to work on developments in the fields of raw materials, moulds, designs, workers and machinery, and marketing.
Mr Surasak concluded by calling upon Thailand’s tanneries to produce leather better suited to the needs of the domestic footwear sector and by urging footwear producers to invest more in sole injection technology and marketing.
