Through a short press release, the sports footwear manufacturer Bicontinentar laid off 101 workers due to lack of imported inputs. Bicontinentar produces for several brands, including Under Armour, Le Coq Sportif, Montagne, Joma, Hush Puppies, Olimpikus, Athix and Diadora, but “difficulties in approving import licenses and payments abroad has created significant supply chain delays in the majority of our customers“the company said in a long statement.
According to union sources, Bicontinentar -based in Chivilcoy Industrial Park- it had around 400 employees and two weeks ago it began sending “notifications to workers informing them of the possibility of voluntarily retiring or waiting for a dismissal telegram.” The now nationally owned company points out that “since the first week of December, several customers (brands) have informed us that many of the pending supplies have not arrived and they have notified the cancellation of their orders“, i.e. the components necessary to assemble the sneakers.
The history of Bicontinentar dates back to 2006. That year it settled in Argentina the Brazilian Paquetá, when “the country had twin surpluses, annual growth rates of the national economy and a certain industrialization policy.” But in 2018 – they say in the company – Paquetá closed due to lack of growth “and having to compete in unequal conditions”, we read in the press release.
The plant reopened in January 2021 with the recovery of consumption in the post-pandemic and under the leadership of the new Argentine ownership. On Bicontinentar’s official website, they describe that “we are an Argentine company specialized in the production and assembly of high-tech sports footwear. We work for big brands with cutting-edge equipment, rigorous international standards and the experience of our team of I work with extensive experience in the sports footwear industrial sector.”
The Footwear Industry Workers Union (UTICRA) has decreed a state of alert and mobilization. The union warns that “The layoff process has already reduced the plant from 550 to fewer than 400 workers since it reopenedand is proceeding with the dismissal of another 101 employees”. The company has delivered communications to the workers – underlines the union – “informing them of the possibility of going into voluntary retirement, or of waiting for a dismissal telegram”.
On the other hand, they assure that the company was “forced to separate them at this moment in which it has the economic resources to deal with the definitive agreements” and that “offered them a 7% increase on the concepts of compensation and noticein addition to the corresponding bonus for each worker who participates in voluntary retirement.
The owner of Bicontinentar is Juan Recce, a long-time investor. In August of the same year it acquired the Paquetá plant, it also took over Colina Shoes, a footwear company based in the Dominican Republic, according to its profile on the social network LinkedIn.
In response to the question of Clarioncompany sources specified that “it is not in our plans to close, on the contrary. We hope to be able to recover production volumes and resume some projects that we had planned for 2024”.
“However – they argue regarding the layoffs – our sector is very vulnerable to macroeconomic cycles, and the recovery of growth will depend greatly, among other things, on consumption levels and related international prices”.
Source: Clarin
