Liberty Shoes in expansion mode

Liberty Shoes Ltd, a $100 million company, will set up three manufacturing units, "two in Himachal Pradesh and one in Uttaranchal", with a total investment of Rs 80-85 crore.

While two units are coming up at Ponta Sahib in Himachal, one more unit is being set up in the Roorkee area of Uttaranchal, CEO Liberty Group Adesh Gupta said. The Roorkee project is being named as "Liberty Polyurethanes" having state-of-the-art facilities.

The Uttaranchal unit would be able to employ 1,200 people directly and 5,000 people indirectly, Gupta said.

"All equipment and machines are being imported from Germany and Italy with an initial capacity of 1.5 million pairs/annum, which will deliver world class polyurethane soled shoes to its customers," he said.

Considering the boom in global majors purchasing programme in favour of India with higher rating to Indian manufacturers than the Chinese and the growing business opportunities in India have prompted the group to double its existing capacities, he said.

While the investment in the two units at Ponta Sahib is around Rs 30-35 crore, the company is investing Rs 50 crore in the Roorkee plant.

The new plant will envisage the latest material handling system ensuring lean manufacturing in place as well as the "best Quality Management System to deliver Quality Products", Gupta said.

This unit will have complete footwear manufacturing facilities from cutting of upper raw material till supply of finished products with in-house infrastructure.

While both the units in Ponta Sahib are expected to start production by July this year, the Roorkee plant, spread at an area of 10 acres, will start operation in January next year.

The company plans to produce special PU application products required for Indian market in the upcoming facility at Roorkee.