SATRA welcomes head of South African footwear programme

George Newton – chief executive of South Africa’s National Footwear and Leather Cluster (NFLC) recently visited SATRA to discuss how the Technology Centre can assist with regenerating the country’s leather and associated industries.

The NFLC was established in the Vaal University of Technology, and will be operating under the guidance of the South African government’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). This new project involves a number of sub-national clusters and centres of footwear/leathergoods entrepreneurships. It has the aim of developing and improving the competitiveness of the South African footwear and leather sectors, to maintain and enhance their positions, both nationally and within the global footwear and leather product supply chain. In order to achieve this objective, the DTI recognises that it is important to continually improve the quality of materials and finished products, while improving productivity, planning and logistics. The NFLC approached SATRA as the Technology Centre has a long track record within the global footwear and leather industries, as well as having worked in partnership on similar government-funded projects.

SATRA’s assistant director (commercial), Christine Powley-Williams visited South Africa in June to discuss opportunities to develop the country’s leather industry, and returned in November to establish stronger business relationships with the various clusters.

Photograph shows NFLC chief executive George Newton (right) with SATRA’s Peter Allen and Christine Powley-Williams.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 6 of the December 2014 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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