Taiwanese footwear major Hong Fu Industrial Group, a supplier to Nike, Converse, and other prominent brands marked its India entry, by breaking ground for a Rs 1,500-crore footwear manufacturing facility at the SIPCOT Industrial Park in Panapakkam, nearly 85 km from Chennai. The groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Chief Minister MK Stalin.

The new facility is expected to generate employment for 25,000 individuals, with 85 percent of the workforce to be women. The project is expected to become operational by early January 2026.

“With operations across Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanmar, and other countries, India’s rapid economic development and growing global influence made it a natural choice for Hong Fu’s latest investment,” said T Y Chang, Chairman of Hong Fu, and a pioneer in the Taiwanese footwear industry. Hong Fu signed two MoUs with the Tamil Nadu government for the project: one in April 2022 for an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore, followed by the second for an additional investment of Rs 500 crore in January 2024, bringing the total investment for the project to Rs 1,500 crore.

R Selvam, Executive Director, Council for Leather Exports said, “The Panapakkam project is a great addition to the footwear manufacturing ecosystem of the country. The slew of investments coming into the sector is a testimony to the confidence shown by brands and footwear manufacturers in the Make-in-India initiative, and also the huge growth potential of the footwear sector”.

Hong Fu is the world’s second-largest manufacturer of non-leather athletic footwear boasting approx. 200 million pairs of sports shoes in annual production, generating USD three billion in revenue.