2024-02-28 22:44:17
Topper Argentina, based in Tucumán, reported the termination of hiring 85 employees due to the “brutal drop in sales”. The company assured that the decision was made as a “last resort” because the prospects in the sector are not good. The textile, clothing and footwear industry is based on sales in the domestic market and hyper-depressed real wages have negative consequences, with estimates of around a 40 percent drop in sales. It is also a federal sector, so the problems will be felt in many provinces. There is also fear of import competition.
The news of the layoffs at Topper adds to the decision announced the day before by another large company, Acindar, to suspend steel production for a month at its four plants due to the collapse in demand. The Argentine Industrial Union, in turn, warned that This year there will be a drop of at least 4 percent in activity compared to 2023, although it recognizes that the decrease could be greater.
Between Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, the company Topper (formerly Alpargatas), located in the town of Aguilares in Tucumán, reported the termination of 85 contracts for workers dedicated to the manufacture of footwear. The decision took employees and union members of the Footwear Industry Workers Union (Ucitra) by surprise, who held a meeting with the firm’s authorities and were informed that due to the “brutal drop in sales” was forced to make that determination as a “last resort.” The former Alpargatas is one of the largest sneaker factories in the country, with just over 1000 direct workers.
The company was established many years ago in Tucumán, it changed owners and since 2019 it belongs to the Brazilian businessman Carlos Wizard Martins, who manages the Topper brand in the neighboring country. According to local press, “The factory constantly changes personnel” and is known for the habit of “not allowing workers to have seniority.” In the case of recent dismissals, these are personnel with less than a year in the company. When Martins acquired the plant “he registered it in the plastics category and the employees lost their seniority,” say the workers.
The same Aguilares plant was involved in a series of massive layoffs – more than 500 people, representing a third of the workforce – during 2018, when the economic crisis of the Macrista government worsened. At that time, it had been decided to close two other companies of the Alpargatas group, the “former Calzar” in La Pampa – after 34 years of operating in the province – and “Catamarca Calzados”. It is feared that this scenario will be repeated in 2024.
But layoffs in the Milei era are happening right away. The suspension of public works ruined the lives of hundreds of workers and around 300,000 would be threatened, according to estimates by the Argentine Chamber of Construction. This week Acindar, among the largest steel companies in the world, reported that it will suspend its activity in its four plants in Argentina for 30 days due to an “abrupt” drop in demand in the domestic market. The industry automotivewhich had the worst January in sales in 20 years, also announced layoffs in the cases of Nissan-Renault in Córdoba and the tire producer Bridgestone Argentina, in Lomas de Zamora.
“The footwear trade registered a drop in sales of between 35 and 40 percent in January,” he informed this newspaper. Horacio Moschetto, president of the Chamber of the Footwear Industry (CIC). These are declines similar to those faced by the textile sector: “In December and January the drop in sales was 35 percent and February is shaping up to be 40 points below last year, the perspective is that we are going to be worse and worse,” lament Marco Melonitextile businessman and vice president of Industriales Pymes Argentina (IPA), before this newspaper.
Information released by the Corrientes provincial senator Martin Barrionuevo on the Mauricio Macri and was 6 percent during Alberto Fernández’s administration. On the contrary, it grew 17 and 11 percent, respectively, in the two terms of Cristina Fernández and 42 percent during the government of Néstor Kirchner.
Imports
Not only the drop in sales worries textile businessmen but also the possible import opening that the Government will try. Meloni was correct in his observation because this Wednesday the decision of the Ministry of Commerce to eliminate administrative procedures that made imports in the textile and footwear sector more expensive was known. Importers will no longer present the Affidavit of Product Composition (DJCP) that required them to report manufacturing details of the inputs and final products that enter the country. Local production is threatened.
A situation similar to that of Topper Argentina occurred at the end of 2023 in the footwear company Bicontinentar, in the city of Chivilcoy. The firm produced for the New Balance, Diadora and Montagne brands and reported in December the decision to dismiss 101 workers due to “problems with imports and the forecast of a drop in activity in 2024.”