(MENAFN- The Rio Times) Azzas 2154-the fashion group created by the merger of Arezzo & Co and Grupo Soma-has shut an Arezzo women's shoe factory in Parobé, Rio Grande do Sul, and laid off 135 workers.

Production is being shifted to other company sites and long-standing external partners. The plant, opened in 2023 with registered capital of R$23 million ($4.34 million), sat in one of Brazil's historic footwear hubs, where factory decisions ripple quickly through local families and suppliers.

The story behind the story is integration and efficiency. After the merger, Azzas 2154 set out to combine overlapping operations, speed decisions, and protect margins.

That often means concentrating production in fewer, larger or more specialized facilities and relying more on contractors that can scale up or down without the fixed costs of running every line in-house.

Management's message: the same shoes should still reach stores-just made in different places inside the group's network. For Parobé, the impact is immediate.



One hundred and thirty-five people losing jobs at once is a shock in a city built around shoemaking. Severance is being processed, and some workers may find roles with nearby manufacturers, but the transition will take time.
Brazil's Footwear Shake-Up Tests Post-Merger Promises
For the wider footwear cluster, the closure is another marker of consolidation that favors producers with the most flexible cost base.

For readers outside Brazil , this is a familiar industrial story with local color: a merged national champion tightens its footprint; a specialized region feels the strain; and consumers may never notice if the supply shift works.

What to watch next: how quickly Azzas 2154 reassigns orders; whether delivery times or specific models slip during the move; and how many of the laid-off workers are rehired within the regional shoe industry.

Bottom line: this is not a retreat from making shoes-it's a reshaping of where and by whom they're made. The outcome will test how well post-merger promises of“synergy” translate into steady shelves and steady jobs.

MENAFN02102025007421016031ID1110144029