Dunlop back to normal working hours

due to increased orders from foreign markets.

 

After a slump in business, Dunlop has been using a two weeks short-time working arrangement.

The tyre producing company is one of the firms in Bulawayo hamstrung by operational challenges.

Workers who asked not to be named told Business Chronicle that their employer had suspended the short-time working arrangement, which saw them working two weeks per month.

“Dunlop has suspended the two week short-time working arrangement that has been there for quite some time. We have been told by management that the company has secured large volumes of orders from South Africa resulting in the suspension of the short-time working arrangement,” said one of the workers from the production department.

The flooding of imported tyres on the local market worsened the operational constraints facing Dunlop.

Another worker said Dunlop depended on foreign markets, mainly from South Africa.

“At the moment, we are depending on foreign markets and locally we only produce upon request for orders,” said the worker.

Locally, the tyre producer supplies to dealers in Bulawayo and Harare as well as National Tyre Services.

The workers said under normal circumstances, Dunlop runs three shifts, adding that following the suspension of the short-time working arrangement, the firm was running two shifts.

“We now have two shifts,” said another source.

Efforts to get a comment from the firm’s managing director Mr Kennedy Mandevani were unsuccessful as his mobile phone went unanswered.

Dunlop has the capacity to produce between 480 tonnes and 600 tonnes per month.

In August last year, Mr Mandevani told this paper that capacity utilisation at his firm had increased from an average of 10 percent in 2009 to 50 percent.

He attributed improved capacity utilisation to increased sales volumes of their products.

Although it is three years after the liberalisation of the Zimbabwean economy following years of economic decadence, local industries are still struggling to improve productivity to competitive levels due to liquidity constraints among other fundamentals.

Zimbabwe’s manufacturing sector requires an estimated $2 billion for recapitalisation.

In light of the many challenges facing the manufacturing sector, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has advised companies to streamline operations in order to curb complete shutdown.