Merlin, the textile company, which resumed operations this year, hopes to regain its former glory as one of the biggest textile giant in Zimbabwe and in the Southern African Development Community region. The company’s Judicial Manager, Cecil Madondo of Tudor House disclosed in the next few months it expects to swamp local markets with its products and also attempt to venture into export markets.
Production, will start with samples, to get orders from the market, hence production in the first months will be customer oriented. The company will resume production at a minimum level, to build its market awareness and secure orders. Madondo said they start with 100 employees for the first three months and slowly increase to 350, as per demand. In the short-term, the company needs $2,1m, in the medium term $4,5m and in the long term, $23,4m. In total, it needs $30m.
The short-term goal is to resume operations which have a lot of benefits to the company, including attracting more investors. The medium term plan should see additional capital investment to raise productivity though carrying out major repairs and maintenance. The long-term objective is to replace the current plant and machinery with state-of-the-art operations which will ensure a huge reduction in costs, improvements in quality and overall efficiency.
They have also implemented a proposal for the company to establish its own ginning plant to ensure a full production cycle starting with the cotton farmers.
They will also work with investors to introduce new products such as disposal diapers and sanitary wear to keep up with market needs and current trends. Cecil Madondo was happy that with the coming on board of a strategic partner, they are confident that the company will be removed from judicial management within the next 12 months, as proposed at their last meeting of creditors and members. The current strategic partner has shown interest to invest in the business on a long term basis because of their huge interest in the textile business of Merlin.
