Bamlaku Demissie (left), general manager of Anbessa Shoe S.C., and Courtney Abrams (right), materials management coordinator for Calvin Klein Footwear at Global Brands Group, cutting a ribbon at the company’s new factory. A former state owned company bought by Tadele Yizengaw the company has undertaken a major expansion at a 20,000sqm plot inside the Akaki Industrial Zone. The new expansion will enable the company increase its annual production close to 3.6 million pairs of shoes, the largest ever capacity in the 81-year history of the company.
It was an Italian national who first opened a shoe manufacturing plant in Addis Abeba in the mid-1930s, before the company was sold to an Armanian national in 1942. The company was renamed as Darmar Shoe Factory. It was nationalized in 1975, and had remained under dual supervision of Anbessa shoe factory and Awash Tannery. With the chnage of government in 1991, the factory was restructured a public enterprise under the supervision of government appointed board of directors.
The current owner acquired the company in 2011, and took the company through series of expansions, while introducing additional line of products such as footwear which the world renowned brand, CK, appears to be interested in buying.
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