adminAMID the gloom of the country’s textile industry, revived textile and clothing manufacturer Archer Clothing Manufacturers is envisaging growth of its business as it seeks to fortify its regional markets as well as further explore the Comesa market.
The Bulawayo-based company’s managing director Mr Jeremy Youmans said the clothing manufacturer was at an advanced stage of completing its re-fabrication and refurbishment of its factory so as to embark on full-fledged production.
The revival of Archer Clothing remains one of the biggest success stories and a huge feat to be achieved by a local company that was on the brink of collapse since the free fall of the country’s industries over the past decade.
Creditors of Archer Clothing Manufacturers approved its take-over by Harare-based Paramount Garments early this year, saving it from liquidation.
Take-over negotiations between the two companies started in 2013 after they initially entered into a cut, make and trim deal.
Under the deal the Harare company, supplied clothing material and labour while Archer provided the working space.
“We export approximately 50 percent of our output. Our biggest export markets, in order, are South Africa, Germany, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi, Botswana, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya. We are developing markets in Angola, West Africa and other southern Comesa countries,” Mr Youmans said.
Apart from investing in the re-fabrication and refurbishment of its factory, the company also set up a training school within its plant to fill the gap that had been left void due to shortages of some skill sets.
“Right now we have full utilisation of two of the three production areas, which represents 74 percent of the total manufacturing area, once the refurbishment and training is complete,” Mr Youmans said.
He said the company was employing 631 people and was optimistic that it would achieve its target of having a workforce of 850 next year.
This was after falling from a peak of employing 1 600 workers in 2006 to just 30 by last year.
“Once the refurbishment of the third production area is complete, we will employ into the training school at the rate of approximately 50 per month. So we probably won’t be at 850 by the end of the year but hope to be by March 2016,” Mr Youmans said.
He said the company was pursuing a strategy of developing local manufacture of some of the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as it was currently importing to complement its range of locally manufactured goods.
“So we are near to commissioning the equipment and opening a leather factory in Bulawayo to produce leather PPE for our range and then later leather items for our leisurewear range such as belts and jackets,” Mr Youmans said.
Last week, Archer Clothing opened a retail outlet next to its factory as part of its efforts to avail its products to the public at competitive prices.
He said through the economic decline of the last 10 years, a lot of the linkages in value chains were broken, including breakages from manufacturers into the retail sector.
“As employment reduced, so did demand and both manufacturers and retailers found it harder and harder to recover overheads from a lower level of sales. This manifested itself in low capacity utilisation leading to higher costs of production in the factories and higher margins and prices in the retailers.
“So we wanted to provide a retail outlet for consumers which made available our full product range at competitive prices, while also providing the service levels expected of a shop rather than a factory. It enables consumers to have more access to our locally manufactured goods and to see for themselves the price these are available at,” Mr Youmans said.
He said the dollarisation of the country’s economy amplified the ability by people to easily import goods in countries which were in a more favourable economic position.
Locally manufactured goods were perceived to be more expensive than imported goods, and consumers tended to look for imported goods rather than locally manufactured ones as they believed they would always be cheaper.
“If they saw a locally made item at a fair price, they would search for an imported one that they thought must be cheaper. Sometimes this is true as there are many good value imported clothing items.
“But there are also many locally made garments which are of better value, but due to the breakages in linkages, they are not always available in retail outlets as many of the goods in retail outlets are imported,” Mr Youmans said.
It is estimated that 90 percent of the clothing goods entering Zimbabwe duty free under a Southern African Development Community certificate, do not qualify as they are made from fabric from Asia, if not manufactured there as well and falsely declared as made with Sadc. “When we try and export to another Sadc member, this is strictly enforced, but we do not have the same level of compliance with imports.
“This is in addition to those goods which are smuggled. So the pricing argument is more complicated,” Mr Youmans said.
At its peak, the textile sector used to produce about 135 million garments annually, compared to the current 18,7 million garments, industry officials say. The industry employed 35 000 workers, compared to current levels of just under 7 000.
Online Reporter