Footwear for motorcycle championships

The Brad-based arts and crafts co-operative had difficult times three years ago. The orders could not supply the money to pay the salaries and the co-operative’s employees could lose their jobs at any moment.

An Italian requested some orders from the co-operative and soon after that he set up his own company, where he hired 60 employees who used to work at Horea.

Memola Natale came in Romania for business, as manufacturing costs were high abroad. He used the status of depressed area granted to the region in 1998 and founded SC Rostyle Di Memola Natale SRL, dealing with the manufacture of faces for sport and motorcycle footwear.

When the Italian investor started the business, he got the first investor certificate in the area. He hired 60 employees from Horea and trained them in the footwear manufacture, bringing the first equipment from Italy.

The building in which SC Rostyle works is rented from Horea Brad arts and crafts co-operative, under a five-year contract concluded with the former management of the co-operative, paying 2 million ITL monthly.

But the co-operative new management team asked the Italian a higher payment for the rent contract. The litigation was solved in court and the Italian investor won the lawsuit. Memola Natale keeps on working there, but he is afraid the electric power or heat supply might be cut by the co-operative some day.

Rostyle Brad workers manufacture faces for the footwear used by motorcyclists in their rides. The products are assembled in Italy and they are exported to countries such as the US and Japan.

The motorcycle boots faces are manufactured under the trademark of the US company Alpinestars, the most important producer and supplier of equipment for motorcycle competitions in the world. Last September, during the Motocross des Nations from St.Jean D’Angely, France, four of the nine pilots belonging to the best three teams (the US, Italy and Belgium) were sponsored by Alpinestars.

Beside the motorcycle boots, the 84 current employees of Brad-based co-operation also manufacture sports footwear for the domestic market – boots and mountaineering boots, produced only in the periods when the motorcycle boots are not demanded.

Memola Natale has invested 7 billion lei so far in equipment acquisition or rental from Italy and upgrading the workshop where the footwear is manufactured.

Rostyle registered turnover worth 4 billion lei last year, but the Italian manager and owner intends to reach at least 6 billion lei in turnover this year. Hunedoara Trade and Industry Chamber ranked Rostyle among the first three best medium-sized enterprises in the region.

Despite the conflicts with the co-operative’s current management team, which is the sole administrator of the company, Memola Natale decided to enlarge the production space and to hire another 80 employees this year.

“We manufacture under the lohn system, with raw materials imported from Italy, where we sent all of our motorcycle boots faces production. I hope the troubles regarding the payment of the rented space will stop,” Memola Natale said.