Sportswear production receives double boost
04/06/2009
The authorities in Argentina announced two important new developments in the sportswear manufacturing sector at the start of June.
Brazilian clothing, footwear and equipment brand Penalty has announced that it will invest US $5.4 million in a new factory on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires. Alexander Estefano, a local spokesperson for the Sao Paulo-based firm, said the aim was to bring the new facility up to an annual production capacity of 400,000 pairs of sports shoes by 2010.
The new factory will be Penalty’s fifth in Argentina, where it already produces 25 million pairs of shoes and 80,000 items of sports apparel a year.
At the same time, the local management team for Nike, headed by vice-president Jayme Martín, said it had agreed with Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, its plans to invest an initial US $1.4 million in a new factory elsewhere in the province of Buenos Aires where it will manufacture football boots.
The government ministry in charge of the manufacturing sector in Argentina issued a statement saying that the new Nike plant would lead to retailers throughout the country importing 500,000 fewer pairs of football boots every year, potentially adding $8 million to the value of domestic production of this type of footwear.
In 2008, Nike produced in Argentina 1.3 million pairs of sports shoes, a million pieces of sports clothing and 2.2 million sports socks.
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