Cluster Aragonés del Calzado

Presentation

We are a group of Aragonese footwear companies that want to make a qualitative change to our competitive situation. Our future lies in our products and our clients. We have always made excellent shoes, but the market nowadays demands even more, a constant daily effort to qualify our products, through design, innovation and quality. We have to work on improving our commercial networks, both national and international. We also have to be extremely careful about the way in which our products arrive on the market, starting with the service for our clients, then managing our communication, and finishing by promoting the image of our brands. We have to strengthen our brands.

We know that it is difficult to individually tackle all these objectives. This is why CLAC! was created to promote cooperation between companies, collaborations that help us progress towards the mentioned goals. The Cluster is a forum in which we all express our opinions, see the opportunities, and find synergies to seize them. We are making member companies be more open and receptive. The real competitors, of whom there are many different types, are out there, on the market. In the end, any competition amongst ourselves could be considered ridiculous. Business opportunities must come first.

There’s still a lot to do, but we’re on the right track. We are pursuing significant changes, in our companies, our habits and our mentality. We have to be patient, because results never happen overnight, but we can value what we are already achieving. With the support of the Government of Aragon and of the rest of the Aragonese institutions (Zaragoza Chamber of Commerce, etc.), we will achieve better products, better clients, better companies, and better footwear businessmen. It is the right moment, we have to seize it.

Description

CLAC! currently includes 31 member companies, of which 24 are footwear manufacturers, 5 suppliers and related companies and 2 footwear retailer chain. All the companies (100%) are family-run SMEs. Most of them are small-sized companies (between 10 and 50 employees), although there are also some medium-sized companies (>50 employees) and micro-sized companies (<10 employees).

• Footwear manufacturers: The profile of the average CLAC! footwear manufacturer corresponds to a company that makes sport/casual shoes, with about 30 workers and an annual turnover of 2.5 – 3 million euros, with its own collections and brands, dedicated exclusively to the Spanish market, but with plans to start the internationalization of the company. There are almost the same number of brands for women as there are for men and children. However, there are also some companies that do not have this dominant profile, thereby contributing to the diversity of CLAC!: there are those which make dress shoes for men, those which make wide-fitting shoes for women, or those which make shoes for the army and police forces. With regards to sales destinations, this is also quite diverse: there are three manufacturers exporting their whole production, and eight which combine the national and export markets. Exports are mainly directed to France. Other destination markets include Italy, Germany, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, etc. Two of the manufacturers have their own shops to complement their brand-building effort.

• Suppliers and related companies: Five member companies are suppliers of the footwear manufacturers. They can be grouped in four different categories: companies that carry out intermediate operations of the productive process (moulding, plastering, etc.), thereby their operating field is mainly local; companies that assemble and supply cardboard shoe boxes (field that is more or less regional, it is a product that can not travel more than about 200-300 kms); companies that mainly supply soles for shoes, and that work on a national level, although it is a type of product that could be exported; and companies which work in four different components, whose field is also international (laces and threads, leather, adornments and insoles).