Porto (Portugal) – 95 abstracts received during the Call for Papers reveal the increasing interest of the footwear industry for the UITIC Congress. The 20th edition of the International Technical Footwear Congress will take place in Porto from the 16th to the 18th of May.
       19 countries, representing the main worldwide footwear players, have presented their ideas for the in-room sessions of the UITIC Congress. China, India, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain were the most represented countries in this Call for Papers open to all innovators from the worldwide footwear industry.
       An increasing number of countries with submissions when compared to the previous edition of the Congress (13 countries presented submissions for the last UITIC Congress in Chennai) reveals “the UITIC Congress is more and more interesting for the footwear community”, stated Françoise Nicolas, UITIC’s General Secretary and Coordinator of the Scientific Committee. Nicolas has no doubts: “We can consider the Call for Papers a great success!”.
       All the proposals will now be evaluated by the Scientific Committee and the results will be communicated before the end of February. A selection of 25 to 30 speeches will be delivered during the 20th UITIC Congress in Porto, subject to the following main topics:
- New products, new services linked to the consumers' needs;
- Intelligent development and manufacturing: towards a technological revolution;
- Sustainability, supply chain transparency and regulatory trends impacting on factories;
- Human centered factories and new way of management.
       Anticipating the atmosphere of the 20th UITIC Congress Françoise Nicolas declared: “It will be a great opportunity to meet relevant experts from the main footwear manufacturing areas, to have detailed information on the state of the innovations available and to get familiar with the main technological orientations for the footwear sector.

Cape Town (SA) – Bolton will be launching its fourth seasonal road show this month in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. This will be followed by Free State, which will take place in early March, covering Welkom, Bethlehem and Ladybrand during a four day road trip. Our main objective for doing the road show is to allow our retailers the opportunity to view the entire product offering that Bolton has to offer, in one central location. Retailers are able to compare product and price points which are aligned with their consumer profiles. The Summer 2018 product which will be showcased will focus mainly on the imported categories with locally made product like Grasshoppers, Bronx and Barker to name a few.  Winter 2018 will also be available to allow for retailers who require March/April/May deliveries. Import  Brands like Olympic, Jordan and Renegade will be showcasing their Winter 2018 range, most  of which is ex-stock. The open invitation was e-mailed to our database of customers however if you prefer a one on one appointment, then please contact your Bolton agent for an appointment.

Pinetown (SA) – Bata SA has begun a "structured exit" from its 60-odd remaining bricks-and-mortar retail stores. At the same time, it will expand multi-channel and online retail.
       Bata SA country manager John Harman, appointed at the beginning of last year, is concentrating on playing to the company's strengths as a local manufacturer. To reduce its dependence on its Toughees school shoes and Tomy canvas footwear, Bata SA has increased its product offering with the reintroduction of Bata global brands Bubblegummers, Power, Weinbrenner and old favourite North Star, which he said had been "well received" by retailers.
       He said he was "focused on expanding the synergies that exist between Bata SA and our retail partners".
       "Bata realises that retrenchments will be an inevitable consequence of the revised strategy, and as such, staff remain a priority in our negotiations," he said.

Cape Town (SA) – Chic Shoes' shareholders decided last Monday to place the company in voluntary liquidation - the same day we reported that turnaround practitioner JJ Oosthuysen was seeking creditor buy-in for a strategy to trade out of its situation.
       The company will close on Wednesday (January 31).
       "The company had multiple challenges and at the end it proved to be too much," he said. "Business model design is key to the success of any business, especially in the footwear and textiles sector where they face severe competition from low cost imports.
       "Planning for an event or a business strategy implies a certain set of assumptions to be adopted. These assumptions include aspects such as payments to be collected by a certain date, bank balances to be at a certain level, suppliers to release components on credit etc. Once the word is out on the streets that a company is in trouble, everybody pulls back to contain their exposure and risk. These include stakeholders such as customers (supplier failure risk), suppliers (credit risk) and staff (salary risk) etc. Once this happens, everything planned falls flat and alternative plans need to be generated.
       "The reasons for failure relate to the company’s chosen business model that did not deliver the desired profitable business results, meaning, the finance structure and high gearing, the management and governance model, the sales and product distribution model, unprofitable customer base, high input costs (materials and labour), exposure to foreign currency exchange rates, efficiencies on the factory floor, waste management etc all contributed to the failure of the business."
       He said he expected liquidators to be appointed within 2 or 3 weeks.