Safety shoe firm takes Uruguay’s tanners to task
02/12/2014
Former TV chef, Mariela Fossati, took over the running of the family firm in 2011 after the death of her father. The company makes safety footwear by hand and sells under two brand names: Punch and Casual. From a peak of 600,000 pairs a year, production levels have fallen to nearer 85,000, but Ms Fossati, who runs the business with her sister and their mother, is determined to carry on.
On the one hand, she said in recent comments to local media that a fall in orders from the domestic construction industry was a large part of Fossati’s current difficulties. “Construction companies are importing safety footwear of very poor quality from overseas instead of buying from us,” Ms Fossati said.
At the same time, she said production costs for her company were very high, partly because tanners in Uruguay seem unwilling or unable to supply the leather Fossati needs for its uppers. “The leather needs to be between 1.8 and 2.2 millimetres thick,” she explained, “and also require treatment to provide water-proofness. We have a requirement at the moment of around 2,000 square-metres a month and it seems it’s too expensive for our tanners to produce; they seem happier making upholstery leather or exporting semi-finished hides, without adding any value, which is sad.”
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