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Turnall health and safety manager Earnest Mangoma explains various processes that products have to go through to army officers from the Zimbabwe Staff College during the tour of the factory yesterday

Sifundiso Ndlovu  Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE Stock Exchange-listedmTurnall, plans to increase annual turnover to $300 million next year after diversifying its product offering, a senior official said yesterday.
The company’s technical director Francis Chigwedere revealed this during a visit by army officers from the Zimbabwe Staff College to its premises in Bulawayo.

Army officers from the Zimbabwe Staff College toured Turnall and Monarch seeking to have a better understanding of their operations and help them enhance the defence and security of the country.

Chigwedere said the stock exchange listed company was currently operating at 30-40 percent capacity as a result of the financial constraints caused by sanctions.

He further revealed that the company had been forced to import asbestos fibre from Brazil and Russia by the closure of Shabanie Mine.
“We are geared to play our part in supporting the Zim-Asset blueprint especially in employment creation, infrastructural development and closing the gap between exports and imports,” said Chigwedere.

“Our vision is to have an annual turnover of over $300 million by next year and we are on course to achieve it as we have diversified to producing concrete tiles and we recently installed a hi-tech line for production of synthetic fibre.”

He said the company was using white asbestos that was safe unlike the blue and black asbestos that is harmful to human beings.
The company produces a variety of products which include pipes, asbestos sheets, concrete tiles ridges, flasher board and ceiling boards.
During the tour, it was revealed that there were plans to salvage some fibre from Shabanie Mine.

The Commandant Zimbabwe Staff College, Brigadier General Augustine Chipwere, said the objective of the tour was to ensure that military officers understand the relationship between economic development and maintaining peace and security and to enhance the interaction between the military and the strategic industries.

“This tour is part of our Geopolitics studies. We were given a presentation by the Minister of Industry Cde Mike Bimha and it centred on policy issues. We now want to have a practical experience of how selected firms operate. We have visited Varicam and Windmill      in Harare; we will visit Monarch today,” said Gen Chipwere.

Among the students were officers from defence forces in the Sadc region.
The army officers were briefed and taken on a guided tour of the firm to familiarise them with the operations of the company.