CH.CH. BOOT FACTORIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 July 1937, Page 6

CH.CH. BOOT FACTORIES

SLACKNESS IN ORDERS [per pbess association.] CHRISTCHURCH, July 29. A serious position has been reached in several of the local boot and shoe factories, due to the flood of imports of footwear from other countries, with lower labour costs. One firm has dismissed thirteen operatives already, and others are working short time in order to keep their employees going, but it was stated, this morning, that the position was rapidly going from bad to worse, and that further dismissals in the near future seemed inevitable.

The manager of a factory which has dismissed thirteen hands said, today, that prior to taking that step, the factory was working only three days a week. The dismissals were made to enable a return to be made to full time work for the remaining employees, but he could not see how it would be possible to avoid a further reduction in staff in the next few weeks.

Price cutting had already broken out, he said, and his firm and others were prepared to make sales at prices below cost of production, to-day, in I the effort to keep their factories going, but still they could not make sales because of the intensity of competition of imported footwear. Mr. Savage had said those people who were importing goods to undercut New Zealand manufacturers might find their goods would not arrive, but so far he had not lived up to his words. “They have kidded us on all along, but nothing has been done and now the breaking point has been reached,” he concluded.