Aco Group

A history of strategy, innovation and success

Three factories, 810 employees, 6,500 pairs of shoes produced daily and present in 33 countries of the various continents are data that fully illustrate the greatness of the ACO SHOES Group.

In 1975, we started as a small factory in very small facilities, in the town of Mogege, in the Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão, my hometown, in the North of Portugal. Today, in addition to the mother company, we have factories in Ponte de Lima (Portugal) and Cape Verde.

The Group ACO SHOES is the leader in Portugal in the production and export of women´s comfort footwear. This successful path, with over 40 years has been not only the result of great effort, but also of effective organization and a clear vision from the the very first hour.

In the Group ACO SHOES, we work with our eyes set on the future, constantly seeking to make our products better and more useful to consumers.

The constant commitment to technological innovation and the development of new products and new solutions for consumers has been one of the key to our success. But our success would not be possible without the support and the personal and professional commitment of all its employees, from the production to the sales sector.

As president of an international business group that is vertical and family owned, which is increasingly rare in the world economy, I wish my family continues for many years to make ACO SHOES a benchmark company in the footwear industry, in internationalization and creating wealth and social development in Portugal and in the world.

ARMINDO COSTA
Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of ACO - Fábrica de Calçado, SA
armindo.costa@acoshoes.pt

Armindo Costa showing the first pair of shoes produced in the Group's own facilities, in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal.

PRESENTATION

With production units in Portugal (in the municipalities of Vila Nova de Famalicão and Ponte de Lima) and Cape Verde (in S. Vicente), the Group ACO SHOES has a history of more than 40 years, marked by the sustained growth in the comfort footwear industry.

ACO GROUP FACTORIES

ACO Shoes

Fábrica de Calçado, S.A

Mogege - Vila Nova de Famalicão
PORTUGAL

ICCO

Components and Orthopedic Footwear Industry

Ilha de São Vicente
CABO VERDE

ECCO Conforto

Indústria e Comércio de Calçado Lda.

Rebordões Souto - Ponte de Lima
PORTUGAL

MISSION

We produce and commercialize comfort shoes for women, namely shoes, boots, sandals and slippers, with high standards of comfort, quality and functionality, to serve the consumers of the most demanding markets in the world.

VISION

To be leaders in Portugal in the production and export of comfort women´s footwear, and for our brands to be present in the most developed international markets.

VALUES

Confidentiality, Comfort, Ethics, Design, Functionality, Integrity, Fashion, Professionalism, Responsibility, Sustainability, Transparency, Healthy Living.

HISTORY

1975

On the 6th of June 1975, ACO - Fábrica de Calçado Lda was officially constituted, by a deed drawn up in the First Notary Office in Vila Nova de Famalicão (Portugal). With a total of 11 people, ACO began as a small footwear factory working in the town of Mogege, in a small leased space.

1979

The ACO Footwear Factory leaves the small warehouse it first started and begins to operate in its own modern facilities, built on nearby land, in Condado, Mogege, where it is currently, and where it is prepared to answer to all the production stages of footwear. On the 6th of November, 1979 the first pair of women's comfort shoes were produced in the new facilities.

1985

On the 27th of July 1985, the Portuguese Minister of Employment and Social Security, Amândio de Azevedo, inaugurated the new ACO premises in Mogege, Vila Nova de Famalicão. The plant works located in Condado developed over several phases. They began in 1978, with the construction of the first pavilion, and would only totally finish in 1985, with the construction of a new industrial block and a multipurpose space for the workers.

1985

"Those responsible for the Group ACO are considered to be serious people, who practice justice and what they want for themselves make it extend to others. This can not happen if, on the employees' side, there is no collaboration, work and effort. ACO is an exemplary case of this." Remarks made by Agostinho Fernandes, the President of the Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão, at the commemoration of ACO´s 10th anniversary on the 27th of July, 1985.

1993

On the 9th of July 1993, the Portuguese Government's Minister of Employment and Social Security, José Silva Peneda, inaugurated ACO's Children's Nursery, including day-care centers, for children from 3 to 6 years of age. (ATL - Study Center) for elementary school children (the first four years of compulsory schooling) who can play and study there.

1993

On the 15th of September 1993, the Group began to take shape with the start of ICCO - Components and Orthopedic Footwear, Lda, installed in São Vicente, Cape Verde. The workers of São Vicente, most of them female, received professional training at the main factory in Portugal.

1994

On the 8th of November 1994, the Prime Ministers of Cape Verde and Portugal, Carlos Veiga and Aníbal Cavaco Silva, paid an official visit to ICCO - Components and Orthopedic Footwear Industry.

1999

ECCO - Indústria e Comércio de Calçado e Componentes Ortopédicos, Lda., begins its activity in the municipality of Ponte de Lima, in the North of Portugal. In the late 1990s, the GROUP invests abroad due to the lack of manpower available in the regions of Vila Nova de Famalicão and Vale do Ave.

2003

On the 18th of July 2003, the Prime Ministers of Cape Verde and Portugal, José Maria Neves and José Manuel Durão Barroso, paid an official visit to ICCO - Components and Orthopedic Footwear Industry.

2007

On the 9th October, 2007, the Prime Minister from Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, inaugurated the Canteen and the new production area at ICCO - Components and Orthopedic Footwear Industry.

2015

In September, the book "ACO SHOES - Strategy, Innovation and Success - The History of One of the Largest Portuguese Footwear Factories (1975 2015), by Luís Paulo Rodrigues, the communication consultant, is published.

2018

The Government of Cape Verde was represented at the highest level in the 25th anniversary of ICCO - Components and Orthopedic Footwear Industry, on the 15th of September, 2018 in Mindelo. ICCO's 25th birthday, with cake and champagne for everyone, was a joyful event in a fraternal communion between the company's managers, political authorities and the 250 employees. For the Prime Minister of Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva, more than celebrating 25 years of ICCO's existence, it is celebrating "the entrepreneurial capacity, the commitment with Cape Verde and with São Vicente", of an entrepreneur, Armindo Costa , who "believed and invested in Cape Verde." Therefore, he said that his Government remains "very interested" in jointly developing measures that "prove necessary for ICCO to continue to grow, export, invest and create jobs, employment and income" for its employees.

The acronym ACO is inspired by the name of the founder of the group, resulting from the junction of Armindo first letter with the first two letters of Costa. This was the evolution of the ACO SHOES logo from the foundation to the present day.

1980s.

1990s.

2000s to present day.

Aco Group Aco Group