OrthoLite steps in with new factory

The facility is located in southern Binh Duong province’s Thuan An town, about a 45-minute drive from  Ho Chi Minh City. The new facility, measuring 13,000 square meters in size, will employ 300 workers and produce roughly three million pairs of insoles per month. As with OrthoLite’s other factories, the company said its new Vietnam factory would  be environmentally friendly.  

The OrthoLite Vietnam factory is designed to provide better service to the company’s local customers by offering shorter lead times and local customer service. Furthermore, OrthoLite will also employ local staff for product development and sampling for customers based in Vietnam. The manufacturer hopes to broaden the awareness of their brand in Vietnam to footwear brands and local factories.

“Footwear brands want to get their products to consumers faster than ever. With the opening of our first factory in Vietnam, we will have the ability to provide better services to our customers by giving them the OrthoLite products they need with shorter lead times,” said Pamela Gelsomini, OrthoLite president.

“This new facility further underscores the brand’s commitment to service, innovation and industry leadership,” he added.

OrthoLite said it had secured an environment protection certificate from the local government and the factory will produce eco-materials for name-brand customers. The company announced that OrthoLite Vietnam would continue to strive to create a green and clean working environment for its workers and find new ways to make their production processes as green as possible.

Because of rising wages in China, shoemakers are increasingly outsourcing work to Vietnam, where the labour cost remains relative cheaper against China, India or Indonesia. Ortholite’s new factory complements this trend.

Nike last year announced that Vietnam had surpassed China to become the top producer of Nike brand shoes in 2010 by claiming a 37 per cent share in production, compared with 34 per cent for China. The shoemaker plans to continue increasing production in Vietnam in the future when the Vietnam joins the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement with other countries including the United States, Mexico, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Peru and Chile.

Lacoste, the famous French fashion firm, is also eyeing Vietnam as a new manufacturing base to increase its production capacity to meet the global demand.