“We hope this would be the first of many investments to come (in India),” Pou Chen vice president George Liu told Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin when he recently met him in state capital Chennai.

High Glory Footwear India Pvt Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to set up a manufacturing plant at Ulundurpet Industrial Estate employing 20,000 over the next 12 years, state chief minister MK Stalin tweeted.

Pou Chen, which makes shoes for brands like Nike, Adidas, Timberland and New Balance, manufactured and shipped more than 272 million pairs of shoes in fiscal 2021-22. It has plants in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Another Taiwanese footwear manufacturer, the Hong Fu Group, signed a deal to invest ₹1,000 crore to set up a footwear unit in Tamil Nadu about a year ago.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)