By Bridgette Bugalo
Troubled Bulawayo firms Archer Clothing and National Blankets are back on track and are targeting to respectively employ 841 people and increase production capacity by 50% before year end.
In an interview with The Zimbabwe Mail last week, Archer Clothing production manager Peter Msimanga said the textile firm which has been having financial challenges in the past few years was now on a recovery path.
“We are now employing 300 people and we are hoping that at some point we may go back to being the one of the biggest employers with 1 600 workers.
“By the end of the year we will have employed 841 people at this firm,” said
Msimanga, said the firm has a capacity to produce 3 500 materials daily.
“We are working on full capacity and our targets vary according to the style. Currently we are working on industrial work suits and we are meeting our target of 3 500 textiles per day,” he said.
Archer Clothing was closed in 2010 owing to a shortage of working capital but resumed operations in September last year when it employed 205 workers and increased capacity utilisation to at least 25% after Paramount Garments invested about $2 million.
In a separate interview, National Blankets acting chief executive officer, Freedom Dube said the blanket manufacturer was working hard to operate at full capacity.
“Although we are operating at 20% capacity at the moment by the end of the year we will be operating at 50%,” he said.
Dube said the textile firm was producing 200 thousand units from two million a year at the height of its success.
“Last year, we were employing 100 people yet at one point we were employing over 3 000 people.
“We need $3 million to recapitalise but as it stands, we recently moved in to our new premises and we are not yet fully established but we have resumed operations,” he said.
National Blankets, one of the country’s largest textile firms was placed under judicial management in 2012 following viability constraints.
Bulawayo which was the country’s industrial hub at some point has been hit hard by de-industrialisation which has rendered jobless thousands of workers.
Source: The Zimbabwe Mail