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Everyboy knows Leica, the brand used by Cartier-Breson, Robert Capa, among others. It made a revolution in the concept of photography and photojournalism.
Everybody heard about the decisive moment, Leica is an obkect of cult among pro photogs. This movie made in Germany between 1925 and 1932 shows the building process of the microscopes, the lenses, and the first camera produced in series. Only a few people knows that Leica, since 1973, is almpst entirely made in Portugal. In the Farmalicao facility, there's still some resemblances. We will tell the history of the Leica factory in Portugal. The history of a photographic camera that, albeit being made in Farmalicao, to the rest of the world is 'Made in Germany'.
First of all, let's take a picture from the factory. It employs 650 workers, of which about 50% of them women, and more than half the employees have been there for over 25 years. Leica produces more than 90% of the famous cameras, binoculars and distance measurers 'Made in portugal' and provides optical units to Germany and other countries.
As already stated, Leica has arrived in Portugal in 1973, after winning a competition envolving Indonesia and Ireland. The German businessman Albert Leitz have been in Portugal for one week, looking for a place to build a low-cost facility, and chose Farmalicao. "Back then we became surprised with the craftsman nature of the local people. Some girls back then still used an art called 'filigrana', fro Minho [a Portugal district]".
Bernard Mueller is the older employee of German Leica. He worked in Leica Portugal for 26 years and he's now retiring.
Sometimes he helps in the upgrade of the facility, which is supposed to be ended this summer. He came in 1980 and fell in love for the country and the people. "Initially for me it was a shock that in each phrase od the Portugueses there was a 'maybe', 'let's see', 'tomorrow', but on the other hand they were very patient and they always learn something new, here nothing is impossible".
40 years of life give reason to the Germans. It started with 5 people and now more than half of the 650 employees have been here for more than 20 years [again, yeah I know]. The human resources have great value for Leica. We have capacity, we have know-how, of course we are fortunate to work for a world-class brand, so Leica started with the brand and then, like Vasco
da Gama [a Portuguese conquerer] it ruled the world". Carlos Mira is on Leica for 17 years and manages the factory since 2007. He's the first Portuguese manager in the company, and he knows that most of the secret of sucess relies in the workers. "I soon came to work in the warehouse, and I've been here since Leica started". "What's your function today?"
"Roght now I am in the reception warehouse but I can make anything here". The knowledge is often passed from father to son and even from grandfather to grandson. The factory became a large family, united even in the most difficult moments, like the 2009 crisis, when unemployment was a constant threat. "This phase was awkward, we were all very tense and afraid.
Everyone was afraid to lose their job, clealry stressed, but we relied on them, they relied on us, and here we are". "Normally Portugal is just like that, layoff is the beginning of the end, whether you want or not, when a company starts making layoff... but we were sure that when these months passed we were going to have work to do again, and that's what happened, today we have 150 more people".
The Farmalicao factory never had this level of work to do. 97% of the production is destined to German Leica. Cameras, binoculars, distance measurers, and optical instruments. This year the company will reach 40 million euros in sales, a record in times of crisis. "We didn't feel it, we feel what we live outside there. There's taxes, we also buy electricity,
but internally, we didn't fell it, because our market isn't Portugal, our market is the world, through Leica Germany". The building process created by the Germans in more than 100 years hides an authentic treasure, that makes Leica products unique in the world. It's a secret of manufacturing that's now integrally enclosed in the Farmalicao factory. "We have manual processes. About these processes we don't want to talk. These are the new ideas and have great influence in quality and, as I said, it's a secret". "Here we have people working for 25 years producing cameras, binoculars, etc. There are some binoculars whose process is only known by Portuguese people, nobody outside here could assembly these".
The most known procuct is the camera. Is known worldwide by the pros. Recent history books have many photos taken by these machines, aparently simple and very reliable. "As we said, this is the Rolls-Royce of photo cameras". Last year, there were produced 40,000 binoculars, 15,000 lenses, 4,000 telescope sights [is that right?] and 20,000 cameras. This moment, M9 is the trickiest camera to make. 1,200 pieces with much manual work gain form and follow to Germany and the signature 'Made in Germany'. "Here we do the mechanics, the surface, and the eletronics needed to make the camera work. The imaging eletronic part is still made in Germany. The final product is made in Germany". The final product is a luxury without competition.
The digital M9 with lens costs about 10,000 Euros. "Our competition is luxury product. Our competition might be a worldwide vacation trip, or anything, but we don't see Canon, Nikon, these brands as competition, because we are in other level".
When one compares the film made before WW2 with the images from Leica Farmalicao, there are gestures and procedures that show some resemblance. This particularity gives us a warranty about the future, this factory hardly will make sense anywhere but where it is. "My point of view might seem too proud, but it's not possible, it's not possible because what we built in 40 years can't be quickly moved elsewhere. It'll be impossible". "There has been some attempts to move some products to Asia because they're cheaper - we don't doubt it - but, like, the Portugueses do better. I can assure you that we make some work here that nobody else can do. In asia, in the USA, in Germany - and because of it, here we are". To the lovers of photography, having a Leica is a dream hard to make true. Created my a German visionary and immortalized by the great world photographers, the camera is handed by simple Portuguese workers. "If you had to choose a product to be a symbol of Leica, which one would be it?" "None. The workers. I like more the workers - products come and go, we make a camera today, tomorrow we can build another". To avoid any doubts, Leica is produced in Portugal. The Farmalicao facility is one of those rare examples in which the Germans are dependent of our country and rely completely on the Portuguese workers. Too bad that. in the rest, that's not quite like it.
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