LEWISTON – Shoemaking is coming back to the Pepperell Mill thanks to two qualities in abundance here: French-speaking people and experienced shoe stitchers.
Regence footwear, based in Quebec, is opening a facility to make snowmobile boots. The company is leasing about 32,000 square feet at the Pepperell Mill, once home to Down East and Cole-Haan shoemaking operations.
The second-floor mill space is nearly empty now, but within a couple of weeks, state-of-the-art equipment will be installed, and a crew of 30 workers will begin churning out 225,000 pairs of boots.
“I see it coming, don’t you?” asked Barney Charest, plant manager, as he toured the floor space. With a sweep of his hand, he laid out where the company’s assemblers will prepare the boots’ components, then transfer them to the stitchers who will fasten the uppers to the soles. Next, the boots will have liners inserted before being tagged, inspected and made ready for shipping.
“We’ll be making between 2,000 and 2,200 pairs a week,” he said. “That’s a lot of boots.”
Regence makes boots for the Maple Leaf and Blondo Arctic lines, among others. Lower-end boots are sold through Wal-Mart and Payless at about $20, with higher-end boots sold through L.L. Bean at $200 to $300 a pair. The company reported about $26 million in U.S. sales last year.
Daniel Frenette, vice president of finance for Regence, said the company picked the Lewiston location because it wanted an already-trained labor force that could communicate with its French-speaking administrators.
“Those were the top two reasons,” he said. The company had explored the Pine Tree Zone incentives, but because the Lewiston operation will be seasonal at first, it is ineligible for the statewide business incentive program.
Frenette said he is talking to the Lewiston Auburn Economic Growth Council about the possibility of using Auburn’s Foreign Trade Zone and Customs port as a way to save duty taxes on the boots made here.
“We are exploring it further,” said Frenette.
The boots’ uppers are made in China, and the soles and liners are made in Canada. The trade zone allows manufacturers to save duty taxes on raw materials that are shipped from overseas and assembled here.
Charest said the plant will use just-in-time manufacturing guidelines, filling orders as they arrive rather than building up an inventory that needs to be warehoused. Each component of the boot has an imbedded bar code that allows it to be tracked through the assembly process by a computer. Charest will be able to monitor the status of an order with a simple click of the mouse.
Other innovations, such as Web cameras, allow technicians in Quebec to see problems on the line and make suggestions for solving them, rather than having someone describe the problem over the phone.
Charest, an accomplished hand-sewer who has spent most of his adult life in the shoe industry, is eager to get started. Although he has traveled the world as a production troubleshooter for shoe manufacturers, he’s never been the boss before. But he’s not worried.
“I find that if you treat people with respect and give them a hand in creating their own destiny, then they’ll answer the call and be willing to work,” he said.
He’s delighted with the employees already hired, a “mini United Nations.” About a third of the workers have stitching experience and half speak French, including workers from Somalia and Congo. Wages range from $7 to about $11 per hour.
Charest, who grew up in Little Canada, said he’s pleased to see some shoe industry jobs return to an area once renowned for its footwear skills. Nearby Falcon Shoe was nearly defunct when it was purchased by Hi-Tec Magnum a couple of months ago; it has begun hiring. Charest said he expects that Regence will expand its Maine operation as the Lewiston plant succeeds.
“This will grow within a couple of years” to a year-round operation, he predicted. “This is going to be fun.”
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