The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
A LOCAL small to medium enterprise company, Meprin Founders and Engineers, has ventured into the export market amid revelations that the land the company is operating on has become too small to accommodate all operations.
Meprin Founders and Engineers who began operations in 2000 at Bulawayo’s industrial area — Kelvin North — are manufacturers of four lines of production that include mining equipment — coco pan wheels, cannon boxes, tipping wheels; raw water/ sewer equipment — manhole covers; clean water equipment — saddles, bush pumps, short collar joints as well as domestic products that include three legged pots and baking pots — all made from scrap metal.
In an interview, founder of the company Mr Prince Gobvu said the company has been forced to operate out of borrowed space as production has been scaled up and the land they own has become too small forcing them to drop other lines.
“We are in the process of applying for more land from the city council as the business is doing well. We entered the export market through assistance from ZimTrade and we are exporting to Zambia, Botswana and Polokwane in South Africa,” said Mr Gobvu.
Mr Gobvu said the company which employs 35 people partnered with AfriBase, a South African company which is the sole distributor of its products in the neighbouring country while AfriBase has appointed Meprin as a distributor of its pothole patching compound. He said Meprin was exporting manhole covers and three legged pots to the region.
“We have cultivated symbiotic relationships in the region that have spurred the growth of our products and these partnerships are also beneficial to the people we do business with as we thrive to contribute to economic development,” said Mr Gobvu.
Speaking on the company’s success in a challenging environment that has seen most companies scaling down operations or closing shop, Mr Gobvu said they had managed to “kill” the syndrome of speculation in business that spells doom and gloom.
He said it was important for businesses to face all situations head on and urged manufacturers to embrace technology as a major marketing tool.
“We have developed principles of honesty and transparency to both our customers and other stakeholders. We have also developed a culture of cutting down costs because it is important to lower costs without burdening the client.
Companies should also be wary of their pricing structure because as manufacturers we are competing with products from countries like China thus it becomes important to be competitive,” he said.
The company according to Mr Gobvu procures all its raw materials of scrap metal locally. He said the scrap is re-melted and processed before being used to manufacture products. Meprin exhibited at the just ended ZITF exhibition under the ZimTrade stand and the company’s products especially the pots drew a lot of attention from visitors.
The ZimTrade stand came first in non-commercial industrial category and had six Small to Medium Enterprises drawn from the organisation’s Marketing and Branding for International Competitiveness training programme showcase under its banner.
