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In 2006, ECCO came to the conclusion that ECCO Portugal was no longer competitive in mass production of shoes. At that time, ECCO Portugal was turned into a Research & Development Centre (R&D Centre) for the ECCO Group. Only a small production of Limited Edition and exclusive Premium products was kept. Due to the global financial crisis ECCO experiences a reduced demand for such high-end products.

Further, the gap in costs between ECCO’s large overseas factories and Portugal’s small production unit is increasing. As a result, ECCO has decided to close the Portuguese production of 0.5 million pairs of shoes per year and the distribution centre in Santa Maria de Feira.  Unfortunately, this means that 177 employees will be released.

“Like most companies we experience that the global financial crisis has an impact on our sales and that is why we have to be very focused on our competitiveness. Although it is painful to reduce capacity, it is a necessity to improve ECCO’s competitiveness in a very tough retail market”, says Jens Christian Meier, Executive Vice President Group Production and Logistics.

The Portuguese ECCO R&D Centre is very successful and will be increased to employ 121 skilled employees.

“In the last few years, the R&D Centre in Portugal has become an important part of the R&D area in ECCO and it is very important for us to keep it that way. The highly skilled employees support the rest of the organisation and their knowledge and years of experience in developing new shoe collections is a key element for ECCO”, says Jens Christian Meier. 

The development is in line with ECCO’s strategy of maintaining high added value activities such as R&D and design in Europe while concentrating mass production in the most cost-efficient locations.

The shutdown of operations at ECCO Portugal is scheduled for the end of March. All employees of ECCO Portugal and their union representatives are being informed today.  In the forthcoming process, ECCO will do its utmost to find alternative employment for the employees affected in co-operation with local authorities.

Further information:
EVP, Group Production and Logistics, Jens Christian Meier through Head of Corporate Communication, Michael Ohrt Fernel (+45 29285958)