Footwear and leather expo

This weekend sees the start of the annual Footwear and Leather Exhibition at the BMICH Colombo. The stalls comprise a mix of footwear made from leather, rubber and canvas. Leather goods such as gloves, purses, wallets and bags will be on show as well. 

Sri Lanka’s apparel sector comprises 45 per cent of the export market however the footwear has not followed suit despite development and design programmes that were established 20 years ago. However with 24 buyers from various countries at this year’s exhibition the sector should see real term growth. Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board Chief Executive Mrs Indira Malwatte stated that with a committed private sector and with the help of her association in further development programmes the success of this exhibition and the sector as a whole will flourish.

At the exhibition household brands just as DSI are on offer with a wide range of footwear. High-end footwear such as The Cobbler which is stocked at Odel’s are also on show, with much smaller companies that only have a few lines are also exhibiting.

There are also industrial sewing machine brands such as Global at the show with a larger range of their technologies on demonstration for buyers. S. Kamal Athithan MD of M. P. M Leather Company who has been at the exhibition since its inception said, ‘We are a small company that was started by my parents in 1948, 8 years ago there was only 100 stalls now there are well over 200. We expect to take around Rs 2 million in orders at the show.”