Liberty Shoes plan to buy a tannery

Liberty Shoes plan to expand their domestic manufacturing capacity by starting a shoe factory in either Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh and are buying a tannery in Tamil Nadu, according to executive director, Adarsh Gupta. He said the factory would be set up 'once value-added tax gets implemented', while the acquisition of a tannery in Tamil Nadu was a long-term plan. The tannery may not be the only acquisition for Liberty since their merchant banker is negotiating with Hindustan Lever to acquire their shoe manufacturing business. A new plant with a capacity to 5,000 pairs of leather shoes a day would be ready in Uttaranchal by mid-June, he said. A company release said Liberty are the only Indian company featured in the list of the world's top five manufacturers of leather footwear.