“This machine is worth 1 million euros. This one 600,000.” With your finger, Ruben Duarte highlights, one by one, Aloft’s latest investments, before crossing the threshold of this factory built in 1994, in the Canidelo countryside, north of Porto (Portugal). “There, you see, we could install others”said the sales director, pointing to an empty hangar and a wasteland, on the edge of a eucalyptus forest swept by the wind of the Atlantic Ocean.

Aloft runs around thirty machines to mold soles made of rubber or recycled plastic. Boots, too, by the millions, for Decathlon, since 2017. The most recent equipment, the E-Blast, produces soft soles, from nitrogen-blown foam. This semi-automatic machine, a carousel of twenty-four molding stations controlled by a single operator, is the pride of Pedro Joaquim Castro, the boss of Aloft. It was financed, he specifies, by obtaining public aid “up to 30%”thanks to the Portuguese recovery plan, adopted after the Covid-19 crisis and supported by the European Union.
By 2030, the federation of Portuguese shoe producers (Apiccaps) estimates that 600 million euros will be invested in the sector, which employs more than 33,000 people in 1,171 companies. A tangible sign of the modernization of Portuguese industry. Half of this sum will come from European funds, the rest from companies.
Known for its leather models, the country has been the second European producer of shoes since 2022, behind Italy and ahead of Spain, recalls Paulo Alexandre Gonçalves, spokesperson for Apiccaps. In ten years, sales volumes have increased by 14.4%. The made in Portugal logo was affixed to 85 million pairs of shoes in 2022.
Fulfill orders “in three months”
This is still a drop in the ocean compared to the 24 billion pairs produced per year in the world, mainly in China and Vietnam. But the Lusitanian industry benefited from renewed interest in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic and the Chinese confinement, several brands abandoning Asian subcontractors. “Orders have flooded into our factories”recalls Fernanda Moreira, president of the Shoe and Leather Goods Workers Union (SNPIC).

Obviously, the sector benefits from low labor costs, with a minimum monthly salary of 820 euros, among the lowest in the euro zone. Producing in Portugal also allows French brands to reduce their environmental footprint, as the country’s electricity comes mainly from renewable energy. Above all, the sector is able to honor its orders “in three months”argues Charles Fourmaux, co-founder of the Balzac Paris brand.
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