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Business Reporter
An engineering company based in Bulawayo, Charferfly Enterprises has been placed under liquidation. In a notice, the liquidator Theresa Grimmel said the company was in the process of being closed down. “Please be advised that Charferfly Enterprises (Private) Limited has been placed in compulsory liquidation by November 2015. The company is in the process of being closed down and the assets secured for the benefit of all creditors. Any orders accepted, business conducted or payments made to this company are at your own risk,” she said.

She said creditors or parties should contact her office in Harare for any claims, outstanding orders or other relevant information. Grimmel can be contacted on 0774177153 or landline 04-333213. Of late, Bulawayo which was once the country’s industrial hub has suffered massive de-industrialisation due to the prevailing economic climate.

Last year, a number of city firms slipped into liquidation or judicial management, throwing thousands of people out of work. It is estimated that more than 20,000 people have lost jobs in the past few years following the closure of about 100 companies in Bulawayo in the past few years.

Some of the firms that have been placed under judicial management or liquidation in Bulawayo include National Blankets, Security Mills, Precision Grinders, Jupiter Insurance, Shumba Milling, Lifesmart, Console Motors, Clarke Engineering, Jewellery Services, Corvan and Zambezi Power.

Following the introduction of a multi-currency system in February 2009, the country has largely been affected by liquidity constraints among other challenges. Illegal western sanctions are also to blame.

As a result, industry has continued to suffer critical operational constraints as evidenced by low capacity utilisation levels in the manufacturing sector. According to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI), capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector declined to 34,3 percent this year from 36,6 percent in 2014.

While addressing delegates to the Local Government Economic Development Forum in Bulawayo last week, CZI president Busisa Moyo announced that the industry representative body targets to increase capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector to 65 percent by December 2017.

He said improving capacity utilisation to that level would be done through paradigm shift on the way industry does business. Low industrial capacity was due to factors such as obsolete equipment, stiff competition from imported products as well as reduced demand on the market.