Alfa, the last remaining shoe manufacturer in Norway, will stop all production in September of 2007, laying off 30 workers at its factory in Brandbu. The factory was making mainly footwear for the Norwegian military, the police, industrial applications and hunting. The closure follows the recent takeover of the Norwegian company by Katalysator, an investment group that has also stakes in Rottefella, the Norwegian producer of ski bindings, and in a Chinese plant. It bought Alfa recently from Haglöfs, the big Swedish outdoor apparel company, which had already started to move some of Alfa’s production to the Baltic countries and to China, reducing the total staff to 50 employees. Alfa had a turnover of about 60 million NOK (€7.4m-$9.7m) in 2006.

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