Millenium Footwear seeks to develop products in line with latest trends Some of the footwear items on display at the company’s premises

Blessing Karubwa, Features Reporter
MILLENIUM Footwear manufactures safari boots, casual shoes and boots, formal shoes, ladies pumps and sandals, men’s sandals and rafters, sneakers, exotic belts, sling bags and wallets.

Millenium Footwear’s exotic leather range includes elephant , hippo , ostrich, buffalo, giraffe , wilder beast, warthog and crocodile.

The company also manufactures safety shoes, drill boots, patrol boots, security shoes, nurses’ duty shoes and school shoes in cow leather.

All exotic leathers are manufactured under license and are sourced from licensed dealers in liaison with Zimparks.

Millenium Footwear’s products are of top quality and are in line with the latest fashion trends in footwear.

The company supplies shoes to chain stores, footwear retail shops, government institutions, mines and schools across the country. It has also made its presence felt in the Sadc region, selling its products in most of the trade shows in the region as well as through exports to Europe, America and Asia on a small scale.

With the help of the country’s export promotion body Zimtrade, the company has had technical, marketing and designing experts from PUM (Netherlands) and SES (Germany). They have helped the company in terms of the latest trends in shoe designs and also improved the quality of the products so they can sell in any part of the world.

Millenium Footwear has Sadc and Comesa certification and a Bilateral certificate with Botswana.

Millenium Footwear director Mr Stuart Simali said the Covid-19 pandemic compromised their market and the company saw it critical to focus on products that were needed by sectors which were not gravely affected by the pandemic such as mining companies.

He said they started producing safety shoes which were mainly used by miners.

“We shifted our production focus from exotic to protective wear like safety shoes which was not affected much by the pandemic. Because of the lockdowns, most sectors had put down their tools but the mining sector continued, so we shifted to protective wear. This doesn’t mean we’ve completely changed focus but it was necessary to keep the business afloat,” said Mr Simali.

He said manufacturing a wide range of products has been useful as a struggling line may be covered for by the striving ones.

“We’re doing a wide range of products in which case if one line is not doing well the other lines cover for it. We’ve also managed to remain afloat by investing in our relationships with other respected organisations in the leather industry and footwear retailers,” said Mr Simali.

He said developing products in line with the latest trends in footwear and maintaining strong customer satisfaction has made Millenium Footwear the preferred manufacturer nationwide. Millenium Footwear, which is located in Belmont, Bulawayo has won several other awards including Zimbabwe Investment Award, Global Expo Botswana Award, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and Megafest Business Award.

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