Leather cluster to start operating in two weeks

Prince Sunduzani, Business Reporter
THE Bulawayo Leather Cluster says it will be ready to open its shoe factory in two weeks time after it managed to fix a few glitches that were slowing down the installation process.

The cluster’s secretary Mr Fungai Zvinondiramba told Business Chronicle that the factory, which was supposed to open two weeks ago, will now open in the next two weeks.

The shoe manufacturing factory has a capacity to produce about 158 400 pairs of shoes annually and will employ about 200 people.

“We are expecting to be operating in the next two weeks. We had a challenge of power. The Zesa meters were not properly installed and this slowed us down,” said Mr Zvinondiramba.

Equipment for the new factory was provided by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and it arrived in the country last October.

Last year, Comesa handed over to Government leather processing equipment worth about $125 000 for small to medium enterprises in the leather sectorin Bulawayo.

The machinery included a skiving machine, sole processing machine, a post machine, belt aging machine, arm machine, shoe lasts, pliers and toe lasting machine. Recently leather industry players called for increased investment towards strengthening the livestock and leather value chain. This, they said, will grow the leather industry and ensure that leather industry players have a huge stake in the domestic market as well as capacity to compete on the global market.

They also expressed the need for recapitalisation of the Leather Institute of Zimbabwe (LIZ) to bridge the skills gap and revive the country’s leather industry. The leather institute of Zimbabwe was formed to provide the necessary skills and expertise that will support the country’s leather industry through training, research and identification of  markets.

Leather industry players are on record urging Government to source funding in support of the institution, which they said was key in unlocking the industry’s fortunes through research and provision of skills. — @PrinceNkosy102