US footwear group Collective Brands, which owns the Payless shoe stores chain, will open 15 franchised stores in Indonesia next year and is shifting a chunk of production away from China to south-east Asia’s largest economy, executives said.

The stores are part of a big push by foreign companies, including Unilever, Nestlé and Toyota, to target Indonesia’s growing middle class, while the expansion of production reflects the strong rebound of the manufacturing sector after a decade of decline.

Collective Brands has begun sourcing from Indonesian producers to reduce dependence on China, where costs are rising. Matt Rubel, chief executive, said the company expected steadily to raise output from subcontractors in Indonesia to about 12m pairs a year by 2015. “The utopia for one-stop sourcing for quality and low price has been China?.?.?.?but utopias never last,” Mr Rubel told the Financial Times in an interview. “Today we have to do more work in redeploying to wherever we can.”