Pittards adds shoe factory to its Ethiopia operations
22/11/2017
At the start of November, UK government minister Dr Liam Fox formally opened the shoe-making unit in Addis Ababa. The facility employs 70 people who are hand-stitching shoes for footwear brand Soul of Africa.
Founded in 2003 by Lance Clark, a sixth-generation member of the family that founded the famous Clarks footwear brand, Soul of Africa seeks to use shoe-making to alleviate unemployment in different parts of Africa and to teach local people important job skills. It currently makes product in Tunisia and South Africa, as well as in Ethiopia. It devotes a share of its profits to education and arts projects across the continent.
The opening of the new shoe factory takes Pittards’ total workforce in Ethiopia to 1,500 people.
Image shows UK minister for international trade, Dr Liam Fox (centre), examining one of the shoes the new factory will produce for Soul of Africa with Pittards chief executive, Reg Hankey, and the UK’s ambassador to Ethiopia and Djibouti, Susanna Moorehead.
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