CTC expansion project complete
13/04/2016
The facilities at CTC include training rooms, physical and chemical laboratories and dedicated research facilities for the tanning sector as well as for footwear and leathergoods production. The expansion project added 3,000 square-metres to the site, which now covers almost 8,000 square-metres in all.
CTC chief executive, Yves Morin, reminded guests at the event of the scope and size of the French leather sector. There are 36 companies in the raw hide sector and France is the number-one exporter of hides in Europe and third-largest in the world; exports of hides and skins have a value of €390 million per year, he said.
France also has 43 tanneries employing 1,500 people and is, the CTC chief executive said, a world leader in calfskin and exotic leathers. It has around 100 shoe manufacturers employing around 6,000 people and exported 97 million pairs in 2014 with a value of €2.3 billion. France’s shoe exports have grown by 57% since 2010. Yves Morin also pointed out that French consumers are the second-highest consumers of footwear in the world, after consumers in the US, with an average of 6.4 pairs per year per person.
Leathergoods is also a healthy industry in France, with over 400 companies and a total of 18,500 people. If you add importers and specialist retailers, the French leather industry consists of 8,000 companies with a combined revenue of €15 billion and exports of €9.3 billion, which Mr Morin said was “not bad for an old industry on the old continent”.
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