Axia pumps US$8m into new plant… set to create 135 new jobs

VICTORIA Falls Stock Exchange (VFEX)-listed company, Axia Corporation Limited, says it is well-positioned to contribute more towards the attainment of Vision 2030 after investing more than US$8 million into a new bed manufacturing plant with a capacity to produce 10 000 units.

The new plant is expected to commence production before the end of this month in Harare and targets to supply local and regional markets.

Board chairman, Mr Luke Ngwerume, revealed this last Friday during a ceremony to mark the official listing of the company on the VFEX.

Axia Corporation Limited is a holding company for TV Sales & Home, Transerv, and Distribution Group Africa (DGA), which has operations across the country. It is the 10th counter to list its shares on the United States dollar-denominated bourse.

Mr Ngwerume said the group was driven by the desire to help the Government attain its aspirations for an upper middle-income society by 2030 through employment creation and value addition.

“We are proud to announce a landmark manufacturing project, the 10,000-bed production facility in Sunway city, Harare to open this month,” he said.

TV Sales and HIRE along Fife Street

“The facility is set to employ 135 people and have the capacity to produce 10 000 beds per month. We believe the export potential into the region will be significant and aided by this listing.

“Obviously it will take us time to ramp up to that number but the plant is designed to push that kind of volume and we are very confident that we will get there. In terms of development, it is a huge development and we are looking at not less than US$8 million and that excludes land and other costs,” said Mr Ngwerume.

He said their expansion drive and the listing of the company on the fast-growing VFEX was a grand opportunity to revamp production as the business needs a lot of resources to acquire modern equipment and absorb the latest technologies.

Victoria Falls Stock Exchange

“We should start rolling out the first beds towards the end of this month and that will be creating a lot of employment opportunities,” said Mr Ngwerume.

He said listing on VFEX will bring diversity to the exchange while the performance of Axia is important to the economy of Zimbabwe as the business offers specialist services to consumers and mirrors the economy’s performance as well as the quality of life of the average consumer.

Through its distribution business, DGA, Axia operates in Zambia and Malawi, hence listing on the VFEX is expected to attract investors from the region to participate in Axia as an investment.

Last year, the group saw a growing demand across its main businesses in particular TV Sales & Home, which grew its sales volume by eight percent contributing to an overall group revenue growth of 32 percent.

The retail shop network also increased to 52 for TV Sales & Home while Transerv also added new retail outlets in and fitment centers taking the total network to 42 sites.

“The listing on the VFEX is timely for us, as we make strides into the manufacturing sector – a key economic sector according to NDS1,” said Mr Ngwerume.

“Our aim is to increase localized production of value-added goods to increase company value, employment and to minimize the effects of supply chain disruptions and forex shortages.

National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1)

“As a result, we believe our business is critical in the vision to build an upper middle-class economy by 2030 and the opportunity to list on the VFEX propels this vision forward,” he added.

Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Clement Chiduwa, who was representing Minister Mthuli Ncube at the listing ceremony said the more listings on the VFEX point to the strong growth of the exchange

Axia Corporation chief executive, Mr Ray Rambanepasi, said at the moment the group manufactures about 3 000 beds a month and wants to gradually increase to 7000 by June.

“We have had a few delays in terms of receiving belts from China to help with automation of the process.

However, we will start production towards the end of March,” he said.

“For us to get there we believe by June we should be getting closer to 7 000 units. We have the market in Zimbabwe and the region and our first order to Zambia should be done in April.”-chronicle.c.zw