Archer Clothing, a unit of Paramount Garments, has turned around the corner and is now producing no less than 120 000 units every month, with more than half destined for the export market.
This emerged during a recent tour of the firm by Industry and Commerce minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu where he also commended the company for employing more than 1 000 workers, most of them youths.
“I was really pleased to see that most of the people on the production floors are young,” Ndlovu said.
“They are producing not less than 120 000 units every month and more than half of that is for the export market.”
The Bulawayo-based firm once fell on hard times due to lack of working capital, obsolete machinery, power challenges and competition from cheap imports.
This led to its placement under judicial management in 2010 and provisional liquidation in 2014.
In 2015, creditors approved a takeover by Harare-based Paramount Garments, saving the company from liquidation.
Today, Archer Clothing exports to Germany, South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia, with key markets including the global mining and safari industries.
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While acknowledging the company’s strong performance, Ndlovu called for increased support through enhanced domestic uptake of locally manufactured products.
“Be it government institutions, the private sector, mining companies or the agriculture sector, we are going to be engaging to see where we can promote local uptake because our focus is that as a country we need to support local production,” he said.
He noted that improved local demand would enable companies to achieve economies of scale and compete more effectively on export markets.
Ndlovu said the cotton-to-clothing value chain remained one of government’s priority agro-value chains and a key pillar in Zimbabwe’s industrialisation and economic transformation drive towards Vision 2030.
“We are working very closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to see how we can really focus on these value chains as key drivers of our economic transformation agenda,” he said.
Archer Clothing is one of Zimbabwe’s oldest textile companies, which was established in 1953 and was once among the largest garment manufacturers in the country.
