John Foos announced on Apr. 9 that it will stop manufacturing footwear in Argentina and close its factory located in Beccar, San Isidro. The company said it will transition to importing finished products from Asia.
The move comes as part of a restructuring aimed at ensuring the long-term sustainability of the business, according to a company statement. John Foos stated that this change is intended “to guarantee the sustainability of the business in the long term,” with a focus on consolidating a more efficient structure.
The company plans to end all local production before the end of April, resulting in layoffs for most workers. Its workforce had already dropped from nearly 400 employees in 2023 to about 50 at the beginning of 2026. Only essential administrative staff will remain as operations shift toward imports.
Negotiations are ongoing between John Foos and its employees regarding severance agreements, which reportedly range from 60% to 70%. There have been tensions over concerns that if agreements are not reached, the company may enter preventive bankruptcy proceedings. Workers indicated that local production had been declining for some time, first moving toward assembly with imported parts and then relying solely on finished imports.
Current antidumping measures in Argentina set minimum import values for footwear from China, influencing John Foos’s decision-making process. The company is considering sourcing products from other Asian countries such as Vietnam or Thailand to avoid these restrictions.
The closure highlights broader challenges facing Argentina’s footwear industry. Data from INDEC shows a year-on-year decline of 34.1% in January for textiles, apparel, leather, and footwear sectors. Production fell from around 125 million pairs in 2015 to approximately 58 million pairs by 2020, while employment has dropped by almost half since its peak in 2011.
Similar trends have affected other companies within the sector recently due to increased imports and changes within productive structures. The closure marks an end of an era for John Foos—a brand recognized since the ’90s—and underscores ongoing difficulties faced by domestic manufacturers amid evolving economic conditions.
