Multinationals leave Argentina: Dass, third-party manufacturer for the sports’ brand Nike, announced that it is letting go 400 of its 640 employees of the Eldorado site, in the Misiones province. Extreme Gears and Paquetá, both producing on behalf of Adidas, had already shut down their respective operations in 2018. TechnoSport Latinoamericana, Nike’s supplier, shut down in April 2019, while Puma closed its Chilecito a La Rioja site in June.
Dass’ crisis
The Dass group, proprietor of 5 production sites in Brazil and two in Argentina had already fired 80% of its employees during the last 4 years, while before 2015 it used to employ 1,400 people. Production went from 22,000 pairs to 9,000 pairs per day. There is concern over the definitive closing of the site, even if João Batista da Silva, financial director at Dass, stated to local media that the production plant would remain open at least until 2020.
Nike is importing
According to what reported by pagina12.com, Dario Vera, union representative at Dass and a company employee for 12 years, believes that the issue isn’t of an economic nature, “but rather has to do with production: 95% of what we manufacture is purchased by Nike and re-sold in Argentina, but Nike will now start importing its goods. Nike, in fact, reduced its orders by as much as 70% lately, and thus it isn’t advantageous for Dass to pay for the upkeep of a 18 thousand square meters plant”.
Picture from grupodass.com.br
