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Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE’S sole button manufacturer, Life Gear, formerly Coronet Buttons, requires $200,000 to procure a personalised button machinery to boost the company’s operations.
The firm, which at present is grappling with competition from imported buttons, is operating at five percent capacity and the situation has been worsened by low industrial capacity utilisation in the local clothing sector.
Managing director Mr Umzingaye Mdlawuzo said given adequate support, the Bulawayo-based firm has the capacity to meet national demand.
“We’re presently operating at around five percent. We’ve the capacity to meet national demand but because the local clothing industry is not active there is no way we can be hectic as a company,” he said.
“The situation has also been worsened by competition which is killing our potential to supply the market. If we’re to procure a personalised button machinery, which can embed a brand name on a button as per customer’s specifications, that could improve our business as some of our customers now prefer branded buttons.”
Mr Mdlawuzo said due to the absence of that modern machine, Life Gear is losing potential business.
“We need $200,000 to procure that machinery from Italy and we’ve applied for loan from local financial institutions and funding under the Distressed Industries and Marginalised Areas Fund (Dimaf) but to no avail,” he said.
Last month, the Government through the Ministry of Industry and Commerce promulgated Statutory Instrument 64 of 2016, which removes several products from the Open General Import Licence (OGIL).
Some of the goods listed under SI 64/2016 include hardware and electrical products such as locks, doors, window frames, furniture, white jellies, body creams, foodstuffs such as cremora, coffee creamers, bottled water and salads.
The Government has said SI 64/2016 seeks to control the importation of listed products and in cases where local industry fails to meet local demand at a given time, such products would be imported through the issuance of import licences to cover the deficit.
In a separate interview, Life Gear production manager Mr Cosmas Pfute implored the Government to also consider removing button imports from the OGIL to promote the revival of the company and contribute to the growth of the economy in line with Zim-Asset.
“Despite our capacity to supply the local market, we’re being threatened by competition from imported buttons from China. Although the local clothing industry is yet to emerge from the woods, some of the companies are bringing into the country hundreds of button-full containers. We feel we’re not being protected yet we’ve the capacity to supply locally. This is crippling our efforts to rejuvenate the company in line with the objectives of Zim-Asset,” he said.
Mr Pfute said their company’s factory, which is installed with equipment such as the injection plastic moulding machine, label printing machine, button polishing machines, poli-rotter drums, and turning designing machines can produce up to one million buttons per week.
He said Archer Clothing, which was taken over by a Harare-based clothing firm Paramount Garments, used be one of their biggest customers but since the take-over deal, they are now importing buttons from outside the country.
“We’ve tried to engage them over the matter but to no avail. This is despite all the support that the Government is giving to Archer in terms of orders. As a company, we would expect a situation whereby if any of the country’s industries gets supports locally that firm should also compliment the efforts by procuring locally to support other companies in the value chain system,” Mr Pfute said.
Paramount Garments managing director Mr Jeremy Youmans could not be reached for a comment by the time of going to print yesterday as his mobile number was not reachable.
Mr Pfute said despite some companies shunning procuring buttons locally, Edgars’ factory, Corousel and Toppers Uniforms were supporting them through local procurement.
At its peak, Life Gear employed about 300 workers compared to 32 at present.
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