The textiles war

SA retail stores reluctant to sell locally made uniforms Choppies saves the day, creates market for local uniform manufacturers An uproar has ensued over the ban on importation of school uniforms because there are growing suspicions that the move is calculated to benefit the massive chain store, Choppies Enterprises. In the course of these suspicions, The Business Weekly & Review has established that Choppies is providing a market for local textiles manufacturers while South African retailers, PEP Stores and Ackermans among them, have not been keen to stock up on locally made textiles. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="1" ] At a school uniform manufacturers workshop recently, then Acting Minister of Trade and Industry, Beauty Manake, revealed that, local manufacturers have on many occasions approached “my ministry raising concerns about accessing the local market and requesting us to impose border restrictions”. She said local manufacturers were concerned that “we imported textiles and footwear valued at an average of P1.5 billion annually while we exported only P160 million worth of textiles”. Said Minister Manake: “Hence the manufacturing sector only contributes an annual average of 5 percent to our GDP (a severe trade imbalance and a concern that needs action).” She added that the instrument that bans importation of school uniforms aims to support the local textiles and clothing industry by ensuring procurement of school uniforms from local manufactures. Manake noted that school uniforms were identified as one of the products to promote active citizen participation and sustainability of SMMES. But it appears that while the local manufacturers are capable of meeting the demand, South African owned retail stores operating in Botswana are reluctant to accommodate the local textiles manufacturers. According to The Business Weekly & Review investigation, this led to one of the textiles organisations approaching Choppies Enterprises about selling locally manufactured school uniforms in Choppies chain stores countrywide. The CEO of Choppies, Ram Ottapathu, says he is aware of the uproar around the ban on importation of school uniforms and his enterprise but stated that what Choppies is doing is to simply provide a market for the local manufacturers. “It’s just an empowerment exercise and we are doing it below cost,” he said in an interview. “We are not making profit out of it.” An aspect of the controversy involves questions about capacity, which Botswana Textiles and Clothing Manufacturers Association (BTCMA) dismisses because it is confident that local manufacturers have the capacity to meet the demand of the Botswana market. In September 2021, the Ministry of Trade and Industry imposed restrictions on importation of school uniforms through the Control of Goods, Prices and Other Charges Act of 2003, Statutory Instrument No 76 of 2021. The Instrument restricts importation of school uniforms and requires that an import permit be sought where necessary. The government has explained at the time that the purpose of the Statutory Instrument is to promote local production and build competitiveness and sustainability in the local textiles and clothing industry. The Instrument was also intended to stimulate investment and job creation within the sector. However, subsequent to implementation of the ban, the government granted four waivers to clothing retail stores to continue importing school uniforms into the country. The first of these waivers is said to have started in November 2021 while the last one ended in August last year. Subsequent efforts by the retail stores to get another waiver were rejected by the government, resulting a court case by the retailers. In an interview with The Business Weekly & Review , the president of BTCMA, Banusi Mbaakanyi, said the main reason these retailers want to continue importing is that they get the uniforms in bulk at cheaper prices from outside the country, hence their reluctance to procure locally. According to Mbaakanyi, who is the Managing Director of Gaborone-based Lane Six (Pty) Ltd based, the association had a series of consultations with the likes of Pep Stores and Ackermans last year about supplying the retailers. However, after the consultations got off to a good start, the South African-owned retailers presented their own requirements for procurement such as SABS, BOBS, and ISO 9000 certification. “Because the association has large and small entities, we arranged ourselves according to those who meet these requirements,” said Mbaakanyi. What was to happen was that other members would pool their products and sell through those who meet the requirements made by South African-owned retailers operating in Botswana. “Everything was approved, including the fabrics and the patterns,” she said. The local manufacturers went ahead and produced uniforms, but the retailers appeared to have suddenly backtracked on their own undertaking and did not place orders. According to Mbaakanyi, the result was that and the local companies are left with piles of stock in their warehouses. “We are now witnessing a situation where consumers are buying directly from manufacturers, which should not be the case because we are manufacturers, not retailers,” the BTCA president said. Like the government, Mbaakanyi holds that the local clothing and textiles sector has the capacity to produce to required quality standards and volumes. He singled out the Debswana Tokafala programme for special mention as an intervention that has significantly added impetus to the sector. Through the programme, Debswana collaborated with Tokafala Enterprise Development Programme, the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), and the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) to empower SMMEs in the textiles sector for the production of, among others, Personal Protective Clothing (PPE), uniforms and other textile and apparel products. “We are now talking to USAID to export through the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA),” Mbaakanyi said. “We are at a level where the likes of Pep Stores should have confidence in us.” In so far as she is aware, the only obstacle in consultations with the retailers was pricing. But the matter was cleared because BTCMA, she said the association was able to break down the costs to the retailers. In December, Choppies announced that it had availed a platform through its chain stores countrywide for the local manufacturers to sell their garments. Although the deal was entered into by another textiles and clothing organisation, Mbaakanyi says she has no problem with Choppies availing space for local manufacturers if the deal works for everyone involved. BTCMA has written to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mmusi Kgafela, outlining their problems with the retailers and to ask for his audience to discuss the matter. Through a letter signed by Mbaakanyi dated 28 December 2022, BTCMA notes that the industry has organised itself to be able to supply all the retail stores with school uniforms, including regional stores, “to the extent that some of the BTCA members have stockpiled uniforms with the hope that the retailers will buy from them to meet their requirements and fulfil the ideals of the Statutory Instrument.” The association states that procurement engagements between the buyers and sellers normally take place six months to one year to ensure readiness with regards to preparations for timeously supplying school uniform products in good season. “The preparations in the process of school uniform supply include styling of the product, production of correct patterns, selection of appropriate quality fabrics, accessories, packaging and labelling materials, production of samples, approval of samples, grading of sizes required in the orders anticipated, production of markers, pre-production samples and a competitive pricing structure,” the association says in the letter to Minister Kgafela. “If these engagements are not followed through, we run into the challenges we currently are facing, involving courts, which in our view is not necessary at all, if we all shared the same perspectives on the rationale of why Statutory Instrument is so important towards strengthening of the industrial base.” BTCA says it is capable of supplying the quality and quantities required by these chain stores and has assured the minister of this. “We are writing to request the Minister to facilitate a dialogue between us and these stores in an effort to rebut the decision taken by the courts with the help of your office legally before the import permits could be issued to them,” the letter continunes. This week, Mbaakanyi said the minister was yet to respond to their letter. In a letter attached to the one from BTCA, Fazul Zahir, who is CEO of Premier Clothing, outlines how Pep and Ackermans have been reluctant to place orders despite the company’s efforts to fulfil the requirements of these retailers. Zahir says he has engaged with Ackermans and Pep Stores from the day the statutory instrument was gazetted. According to him, over the last one and-a-half years, Premier Clothing has carried out a number of actions to satisfy the requirements. These include preparing patterns and the first set of samples along with fabric samples and all test reports, sending the same for their approval along with their tech specifications, and receiving the first report on all issues concerning sizing, makeup, and fit. Zahir says Premier Clothing also amended and sent a full set of samples with the corrections for a second approval and received the second report on all issues. All samples were approved except for fit on their dummies which were to be corrected at the time of manufacturing. “Despite all these efforts, both Ackermans and PEP have been showing a lot of reluctance to place orders,” Zahir, who also serves as BTCA vice president, says in the attachment. “It seems that all these exercises were carried out for them to show the Ministry of Trade and Industry that they have engaged us but we were not up to their expectations in terms of pricing and delivery,” he says. He asserts that they had met the retailers’ target pricing and that it has been a constant battle as the retailers come up with new issues every time a set of samples is submitted. “Our fabrics are of extremely good quality and conform to SABS standards but they will still send us a test report saying some are not conforming,” he says, adding that Premier Clothing currently has over 450,000 garments made to SABS standards. “We have offered them to both Ackermans and PEP but they have not placed a single order yet,” he says. To prove that his company is able to meet demand in terms of quality and delivery, Zahir says Premier Clothing has successfully completed delivery of more than 100,000 garments to CB Stores Group on time and to their satisfaction before closing for the Christmas holidays. “Infact, they have already placed orders for delivery in January, February, and March 2023,” he says. [/ihc-hide-content]

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