Portuguese Luis Onofre, in charge of his own footwear (women’s shoes) manufacturing company and president of APICCAPS, Portugal’s association of footwear and leather goods manufacturers, is going to be appointed as new president of CEC, Europe’s footwear confederation. He will replace former president Cleto Sagripanti. The baton pass will take place in Porto, on May 24, during the meeting that will appoint Onofre. APICCAPS made the announcement about it. This is going to be the second time they choose a Portuguese president at CEC. In fact, from 2001 till 2003, the association was led by Fortunato Frederico, who was subsequently replaced by Italian Antonio Brotini. Cleto Sagripanti has been leading the association since 2015: he can’t stand for election anymore, after being elected again, two years ago, for a two-year period in a row. Headquartered in Brussels, CEC represents Europe’s whole footwear industry, which includes 20,300 companies and over 286,000 work posts (data, provided by CEC, refer to 2016). Here are the members of the confederation: Italy, Portugal, Finland, the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Spain, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Hungary and Czech Republic. Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine are just “observers”. Germany and Benelux are notably absent. Luis Onofre is a designer. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Porto; he subsequently graduated at the Academy of Design and Footwear, formerly Professional Training Centre for the Footwear Industry.
CEC, European footwear manufacturers appoint new president: Luis Onofre takes over after Cleto Sagripanti
