Shoemax begins trial production

Shoemax Engineering, a Kanpur-based leather accessory company, has started the trial production of aluminum molds for shoe soles, to be used in the manufacture of TRP, PU, rubber and PVC soles.

Vinod Dhawan, managing director of Shoemax, said production, which started from January 1, was being gradually increased and would reach 40 in March as against 20 and 12 in February and January and this would eventually increase to 100 per month. The plan is to manufacture about 1,200 molds per year. This will lead save foreign exchange of $1.2 million per year.

The product has been lapped up by the industry and all these molds have gone to large exporters.

This will be an import substitution product, and is as good as the ones being imported from China, Portugal, Italy and others. Shoemax has developed the technology in-house.

Machining is through CNC machines and designing by CAD. Rapid prototype technology is being adopted in shoe soles designing and development.

The company is further set to diversify into leather belt manufacture. This will be a 100 per cent export-oriented unit and will manufacture about 600,000 belts a year.

Dhawan said there was unlimited demand for fashionable leather belts. "We have received feedback that whatever we manufacture will have a market," he said.

The required machines for manufacture have arrived and they will be installed so that production may begin from April 1. Once these two products are stabilised, the company plans to go for further manufacture of other products as part of its expansion and diversification.

This will raise the company's turnover to Rs 20 crore in three years from around Rs 1 crore, when it was primarily a supplier to LML.