Bulawayo PPE producer exports regionally

A BULAWAYO-based clothing firm, Hestra Marketing, has spread its market share to Botswana and Zambia where it is targeting mining clients for personal protective clothing supplies.

The firm has carved a niche locally in supplying schools, corporates, non-governmental organisations and parastatals with an assortment of protective wear.
To expand its reach, Hestra Marketing director, Mrs Semukele Phiri, told Business Chronicle that the firm was exploring foreign markets, particularly players in the mining sector.

“Recently we started exporting to Botswana and supplying Haskins Brothers with hats. There is big potential to do business. There is room for export, especially to the mining sectors in Botswana and Zambia. We hope to go on a large scale,” she said.
Mrs Phiri said the clothing and textile industry in Bulawayo, which was once a powerhouse has vast potential of reclaiming its glory and revealed how they have handled an order of 10 000 work suits.

However, she said the major challenge was the monopoly in supply of key raw materials. She said in Bulawayo, a sole supplier of T-shirt materials has not been able to provide them with raw materials this year.

This, in turn, has created a shortage in sport T-shirts in schools, she said.

“The monopoly in producing and supplying raw material is a major drawback. We wish that other players can come on board and inject competition. As of now we don’t know why the sole supplier is not delivering,” she said.
“For now there is no alternative in terms of raw materials. We mostly do T-shirts for schools. We also produce work suits and photographer jackets and we use drill material for the products.

“It’s a challenge to import materials because we are charged high import duty on account that there are firms that produce the same raw materials locally but are not producing and supplying at the moment.

“Since we opened this year, we have not received supplies for T-shirt production (from a sole producer based in Bulawayo) and we have to resort to importing.

Mrs Phiri said the net effect is that some schools have no sport T-shirts and yet that is a business gap.
“Even if you go to South Africa or Botswana to source the materials, it’s an added cost and the quality is not of a standard we prefer,” she said.

Mrs Phiri said the sector is one of the key economic pillars with a great potential to create employment opportunities and contributing to exports and promotion of economic growth.

She said the firm has a workforce of 11 people and with more machinery, she is able to employ more. She is a self-taught graphic designer and the firm has its background in lithographic printing.

From that point clients began making inquiries if the firm could supply corporate branded wear, hence she ended up incorporating clothing branding.

“We have realised that there is more demand in PPE.

“We supply schools, corporates, non-governmental organisations and parastatals. Everyone needs to clothe well, companies need uniforms for the workforce and some require protective clothing,” said Mrs Phiri.

Mrs Phiri said most of her business is from outside the city.

“Bulawayo market is a bit reluctant and activity is subdued unlike in Harare. Most of our orders with high quantities are from Harare.

“In Bulawayo, we do get orders but in reduced quantities, for instance, we can get 100 work suit orders but in Harare we can receive a double order for the same product,” she said.

“We look forward to receiving more support from Bulawayo markets.”
She added that accessing affordable working capital from financial institutions and micro-financial institutions was a challenge due to high interest rates charged.

Mrs Phiri expressed optimism that the Bulawayo clothing sector will rebound.

“If managed well we can just go back to those peak periods of the past. Our appeal is for clear policy consistencies for us to have proper business plans. The clothing and textile sector used to be a big employer in Bulawayo,” she said.

However, in recent years, many large companies that formed the backbone of the city’s industry have either closed shop, liquidated, or have been placed under judicial management.-chronicle.co.zw