Shafi Private Limited (SPL), a Pakistani footwear company, which is doing footwear business under the brand name of 'Urban Sole' has opened its outlet in Jeddah. "Urban Sole is the first Pakistani Company, which has established its outlet in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Mian Muhammad Ali, Director SPL here on Friday.
Talking to Business Recorder, he said that Pakistani shoes are getting good response in international market. Keeping in view this fact, SPL has planned to open its outlets in Middle East countries", he added.
Giving the details of newly established Urban Sole outlet in Jeddah's Sari International Market, he said that SPL is a new player in Saudi market, where the demand of leather goods and footwear is rapidly growing. "There are more than 15 registered footwear factories across the Kingdom, producing over six million shoes per annum, which only fulfils 25 percent of local market needs, while rest of 75 percent demand is met through import of shoes from several countries including Italy, China, France, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Thailand, Greece, Korea, Brazil and United States", he added.
To a question regarding Pakistani footwear industry, he said that future of footwear industry is very bright in Pakistan. He said that our footwear industry provides a broad spectrum of quality, quantity and variety. Due to recession in Europe, footwear companies have moved to Asia for outsourcing with special focus on China. Pakistani footwear exports have increased by 4.6 percent in value and approximately 4.0 percent in quantity in 2003-04, (8,669,000 pairs worth 76,797,000 dollars) despite Chinese threat for the global footwear industry. Footwear exports increased from 48.61 million dollars (2001-02) to 76.80 million dollars (2003-04) - an upward increase of 58 percent, he said.
He was of the view that Pakistan can explore more markets for export of shoes. "Our strength lies in innovative, defect-free, and cost-effective products, designed according to the customer's requirements. We are mainly producing formal and casual leather shoes for men and shoe uppers for both genders, which are constructed from the finest quality of cow, buffalo, sheep and goat leathers", he added.
It is relevant to mention that SPL was established in 1989 as a member of Shafi Group of Pakistan. SPL is the only footwear company in Pakistan, which was set up as a joint venture with a German company Schuh Union.