How CM Vijay’s push put Ramanathapuram on a footwear maker’s map

Chennai: For Phoenix Kothari Footwear, Ramanathapuram was not the obvious choice for its next shoe factory. The district, which traditionally has fewer manufacturing opportunities, was not originally on the company’s expansion map. Then came a request from chief minister C Joseph Vijay.In a conversation with the company’s leadership on May 22, Vijay asked Kothari to consider taking its next investment to Ramanathapuram in southern TN, to create jobs in a district that has seen relatively little industrial investment.That conversation appears to have changed the company’s plans. “We always wanted to bring factories to backward areas. But in the case of Ramanathapuram, I was surprised to receive a specific request from the CM. It is his vision and I wanted to implement it,” J Rafiq Ahmed, chairman of Phoenix Kothari Footwear, told TOI.The company had earlier been considering land it owned near Melur in Madurai for its third facility, but is now eyeing Ramanathapuram. On Thursday, it signed an MoU to invest ₹1,000 crore in a non-leather footwear factory there, with at least 10,000 jobs, around 90% of them expected to go to women. The factory is expected to be ready in two years.Without much manufacturing in the district, migration, including overseas employment, has been an important source of income for many families. A large labour-intensive factory could bring jobs closer to home and create opportunities for women who may otherwise have limited access to formal industrial employment. A footwear factory can also create thousands of jobs without requiring specialised skills at the entry level.“For us, this decision is also part of the group’s larger ambition to take manufacturing into less-developed parts of the state,” Ahmed said, pointing to the group’s earlier choice of Perambalur and Karur for its factories.