The Danish-Thai Chamber of Commerce took their members to visit ECCO factory in Ayutthaya on Tuesday 6 September 2011. There were 23 members and guests who were interested in this field trip. Since this trip was generally a success, DanCham looks forward to arrange the next member visit soon. See more photo click here
ECCO (Thailand) Co., Ltd. is located in Saharattananakorn Industrial Estate, Ayutthaya which is the best location in terms of labor quality, logistics, and competitive advantage. The first ECCO factory in Thailand was built in 1993. There are 2 core plants, one producing the ECCO shoes and the other the ECCO Tannery. In 2009, ECCO expanded with a new branch in Phichit to increasing its volume of shoes production. In 2010, ECCO produced about 6 million pairs of shoes in Thailand.
ECCO Shoes – Quality First
The production starts back at the Head Quarter in Denmark where all the collections are designed. The product engineer converts the designers idea to prototype and module. The product engineering department has responsible to work on the experiment. Over and over all materials are tested and analysed for strengths or weaknesses of the materials. Many conditions are involved such as season, humidity, natural material limitation, exposure to chemicals etc.
“ECCO produces the world’s highest quality of shoes. We do our best to find out the best technology to improve our production,” Mr. Nicholas Ginns, Director of ECCO Engineering, told the visiting Chamber members.
“Shoemaking can be quite complex and requires very skilled operators in our Production, why training is a high focus for us not only when new people start but throughout their lifetime in our company, making training and education a continuous thing. Operators are taught in both technical operations as well as in quality, teamwork, LEAN and many other things and repeatedly tested and re-trained.” said Tina S. Nielsen, Education & Training Manager.
“We have to understand from the fundamental of making shoes which is leather. You have to know the pros and cons of each part of the entire leather piece,” said, Carlos Reichert, Technical Cutting Manager. Most of the raw leather used in the production is imported from different countries. ECCO shoes mostly are made from yak leather and cow.
The ECCO’s invented machinery is the injection machine which is the best technology of making shoes in the world.
ECCO Tannery
The other product line of ECCO Thailand in Ayutthaya is the tannery production. It is dedicated for ECCO shoes, but also sells leather to the high-end market. Sample of clients are Louis Vuiton, COACH, or Gucci.
“We have the advanced technology together with quality control and are therefore able to produce a more soft texture and unique product. Now you can find our leather is becoming a significant part of the fashion industry as well,” said Mr. Supakit Butsong, Tannery Human Resources.
At the end of the day, the members boarded the bus that took them back to Bangkok – after a brief stop at the ECCO factory outlet, where many bought a nice pair of shoes.
