The Sunday News
Business Reporter
ONE of the country’s leading tombstones and household granite products manufacturers, Ngonda Granites will soon open a branch in Bulawayo buoyed by the ever increasing demand for its products in Matabeleland region.
Ngonda Granites sales and marketing executive Miss Telema Marufu said the Harare-headquartered company has considered opening another branch in Bulawayo as part of its expansion drive aimed at grabbing a large chunk of the niche market in the southern region.
“We have a very big clientele from Bulawayo and in Matabeleland South Provinces especially in places such as Plumtree largely because of the quality of granite we use to manufacture our products. Our participation at this year’s Zimbabwe International Trade Fair also reaffirmed our position of opening a branch in Bulawayo as most people who visited our stand persuaded us to set up base here,” she said.
The move by Ngonda Granites to consider opening a branch in Bulawayo indicates that some players still have confidence in investing in the City.
“Of course by opening a branch in Bulawayo we envisage growth in our sales but it has also cut out transport cost to our clients and above all opening a branch here is one of our small contributions to the economy of Bulawayo. We are going to employ locals as well as pay rates, which will all benefit the city,” said Miss Marufu.
The company offers a complete line of memorial products and accessories ranging from single grave tombstones, double grave tombstones, granite markers, plaques, monuments, benches and a variety of vases and urns. It also produces granite kitchen tops, window seals, fireplaces and dining tables.
Miss Marufu said as part of its social corporate responsibility it intends to produce tombstones for some of Bulawayo’s late luminaries.
“We donated a tombstone for the late hero, Cde Chinx (Dickson Chingaira Makoni) and as a way of honouring and endearing to our clients in Bulawayo we are still consulting on which two late luminaries we can honour by providing tombstones to their families,” she said.
