BRITAIN’S TRADE

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21517, 4 September 1941, Page 8

BRITAIN’S TRADE

EXPORTS IN WARTIME

FOOTWEAR FOR OVERSEAS Civilians in Great Britain are now getting along with 24,500,000 fewer pairs of boots and shoes a year, but a steady increase in the numbers shipped overseas is reported from Northampton, heart of the shoe industry. Before the war Britain bought 105,000,000 pairs of leather boots and shoes a year, and it is a sufficient indication of the large resources of the British industry that not until July 1, two years after rationing had been begun in Germany, was it necessary to restrict the total to 80,500.000 pairs. As there is in addition a vast output of service boots and shoes and of all kinds of footwear for export purposes, there will be no margin for waste. Types unnecessary in wartime are discouraged today and standard specifications may even be introduced for certain types of working and walking boots and shoes. The continuing success of Britain's shoe leather industries overseas is being maintained at home by the active support of the Board ot Trade working through the Export Corporation. Distributors in the Dominions and in the United States have been most encouraging. In the United States offices have been taken in the Empire State Building, New York, as headquarters to promote collective or group marketing. This new enterprise is co-operating with British dress designers and the British Colour Council to ensure the correct modelling and colouring of the samples to be offered in the near future to buyers in the chief centres of the United States.