Meikles acquires Cotton Printers properties

which is under liquidation.
Meikles bought two Cotton Printers buildings in the Belmont industrial area of Bulawayo for an undisclosed sum after Cotton Printers was placed under liquidation in April last year to raise funds to pay debts.
Meikles finance director Mr Onius Makamba confirmed the former owners of the textile giant were the highest bidders for the properties.
It is also understood that the company’s equipment could find no takers.
“We were the highest bidders for Cotton Printers’ two buildings in Bulawayo and we did not bid for the equipment,” said Mr Makamba.
The value of the properties could not be ascertained as liquidator Mr Reggie Saruchera was said to be out of the office the whole day. Cotton Printers had invited bids for the takeover of the company’s spinning, weaving and wet processing operations on a “going concern” basis.
Cotton Printers was the country’s major producer of bedsheets with over 300 employees, until it ceased operations and put its assets on sale.
The company’s employees applied for judicial management on the basis that, if given time, the company’s fortunes could be turned around.
But the company’s lawyers, Gill Godlonton and Gerrans, concluded that the company was beyond redemption and that liquidation was the only option.
Liquidation is the process by which the operations of a company (or part of a company) are wound up, and its assets and property redistributed.
Textile firms have hit hard times, with some falling under the care of judicial managers and others being closed down over the years.
Government’s failure to come up with an import quota in the textile industry has not helped the local industry and cheap imports from China have flooded the market.
Cotton Printers was a part-merger of Kingdom Financial Holdings, Meikles Africa Limited and Tanganda Tea Company in 2007 to form Kingdom Meikles Africa Limited.