The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
A BULAWAYO-BASED shoe manufacturer, Shoe Pack and Company has set sights at exploring the regional market with its array of footwear as it seeks to grow its business concern.
Shoe Pack and Company managing director Mr Temba Wena said the company was looking forward to fortify its market locally as well as using its extra inventory to earn profit in the international market.
The company was part of a number of companies that represented the country at an Agricultural and Commercial Show in Zambia at the end of last month under the ZimTrade banner.
“We were out looking for orders (in Zambia) as we bid to find an export market as much as we can. We are not sitting on our laurels, we are exploring various export markets and we are also seeking to expand our market locally.
“Zambians are very much interested in our products even though they get products from countries such as Pakistan and India. It was a conducive business trip . . . If it wasn’t of the unrest in Mozambique we will be exploring that market as well and we would also like to go to Namibia,” said Mr Wena.
Shoe Pack and Company specialises in the manufacturing both men and women’s classic and casual shoes as well as safety shoes through its brands Baldin, William Bothwell and Desert.
It also produces school shoes through its Me trademark.
The company’s prospects of venturing into exports resonates well with the country’s Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim Asset) which encourages industry to maximise usage of local resources through value addition and beneficiation for the export market in a bid to enhance the country’s Gross Domestic Product.
Mr Wena, however, lamented the influx of cheap imported and second-hand products saying this was curtailing growth of local industries.
Mr Wena also said there were some regional companies who were abusing the Common Market for Southern and Eastern Africa and Southern African Development Community’s certificate of origin to flood cheap goods obtained mostly from Asia under the guise that they would have been manufactured in countries of the two trading blocs.
“The challenge we face is that of an influx of second hand goods coming into the country and cheap imports. When you want to bring the industry back to its normalcy you cannot cook sadza with left overs and new maize meal.
“So the challenge we are having in this country is that we want industry to catch up but we are allowing ourselves to compete with cheap imports and second hand goods . . . it’s like an intruder fighting with the owner of the home,” said Mr Wena.
He said in an effort to further grow its business the company was also seeking a strategic partner capable of injecting capital into its operations.
“The leather in Zimbabwe is very expensive, that’s why you find our products being priced more compared to our regional competitors. What we should do is to have China opening a bonded warehouse in this country and instead of China taking the raw material to South Africa it should bring it directly to Zimbabwe,” said Mr Wena.
The company produces about 500 shoes a day but has capacity to produce more depending on orders. It has a workforce of more than 20 people.
@DNsingo
