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Sikhulekelani Moyo, [email protected]

A NEW investment in acquiring modern machinery is what listed retail clothing group, Edgars Stores Limited, needed to rejuvenate its Bulawayo manufacturing division, Carousel factory, where it now derives positive fruit through increased production and more job opportunities.

Part of the new machinery has already been delivered and installed at the factory to ramp up garment production from 35  000 to 100 000 units per month before the end of the year.

The Victoria Falls Stock Exchange-listed firm is actively addressing competition through innovative approaches, which include cost-effective production processes and localising production, which will see the company having competitive pricing.

The development buttresses Government’s drive to re-industrialise the economy with clothing and textile sub-sectors being part of critical value chains that hold the key in restoring Bulawayo as a manufacturing hub of the country once again. 

Business Chronicle visited the factory last week and was shown the already installed new equipment, which includes sewing machines, garment printing press, sand dusting and reaping machines, and pocket inserting machines, among other accessories.

Although the company has recently relocated its headquarters to Harare citing strategic marketing interests, its manufacturing division remains in Bulawayo, and the factory was a hive of activity with different teams engaged in the production of various merchandises for different age groups.

Workers on duty said they were excited by the efficiency brought about by the use of new machines, which has made their environment comfortable and quiet compared to old machines, which are noisy.

Carousel managing director, Mr Manfree Tanyanyiwa, said the company also bought new motors for some of the old sewing machines, meant to enhance efficiency and reduce power consumption.

“The main objective of this investment was to improve capacity. By capacity I mean the number of units we produce per day or month,” he said.

“The business has taken the decision to internalise a big chunk of our demand within Edgars itself. This implies that the manufacturing division is meant to produce more of our retail need as opposed to sourcing from outside.

“To be able to pump up those units in terms of production, we, therefore, needed to acquire more machinery to increase the efficiency in speed and quality of stitching and execute the production and to improve the number of employment.”

The Edgars manufacturing division has increased the number of employees from 35 in 2022 to about 700.

Mr Tanyanyiwa said merchandise production is labour-intensive saying there is no hope of increasing capacity if you do not increase the number of people employed.

He said the company targeted to invest about US$1 million, which ended up being US$1,2 million after adding a few things that were necessary to meet their set objectives.

Mr Tanyanyiwa, however, expressed concern over the influx of cheap imports saying authorities should consider regulating the informal sector to ensure that there is a level playing ground for both players.

“As a formal business, we always abide by the laws of the country, we have got to find ways of surviving in that uneven terrain. We had to find areas where we do better and one area is quality, we have to ensure that our quality is way better than these cheap imports,” he said.

“We are also relaunching our Express Chain, we are going to be producing new merchandise, targeting the low end of the market.

“We are going to be offering nearly the same price and we have found ways within our production to be able to produce that for the new Express Chain without jeopardising what we have been offering. The desire is to ensure that we continue to service the needs of our customers.”

The company has already opened three Express Chain shops, two in Harare and one in Mutare and Mr Tanyanyiwa said they are set to open in Bulawayo soon.

“Last year and this year, we didn’t export but it’s a deliverable that we want to chase up hopefully from the beginning of next year,” he added.

“After our strategic decision to increase our throughput for the factory to retail it was important to service our chains first before looking at exporting, it was also necessary that we improve our machinery so that capacity can grow to be better able to service the export market.

“We did some exports in around 2019 and 2020, we had a huge export to South Africa, and at some point, they got an order for nearly 140 000 units and we are still in contact with the client and they are still eager for us to resuscitate that relationship.”

Mr Tanyanyiwa also hinted that as a company they were working closely with David Whitehead as they desire to strengthen supplies of local raw materials for garment production and making sure there are reduced costs of doing business.

Currently, the company is sourcing the raw materials from South Africa and India, among other countries.