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Millenium Footwear: Small company with big shoes to fill

06 Apr, 2018 - 00:04 0 Views
Millenium Footwear: Small company with big shoes to fill

eBusiness Weekly

Tawanda Musarurwa and Enacy Mapakame
The company is not a footwear behemoth, and its name doesn’t elicit instant brand name recognition.

But, at least according to its vision, the company hopes to reach that level within the next few years.

And developments on the ground indicate that they are well on their way.

Millenium Footwear, a Bulawayo-based leather footwear manufacturer, is the self-proclaimed little guy with big ambitions.

Business history is awash with global companies that emerged from backyards, garages, kitchens and lounges.

Millenium Footwear seems to be on the right path.

The company started operating from a balcony with two employees in the year 2001.

The two employees? Life partners Stuart and Sikhangezokuhle Simali.

Stuart trained overseas as a footwear and leather industry technician, and he worked for G&D Shoes as a production manager for seven years before venturing into entrepreneurship.

Partnering him on this journey was spouse Sikhangezokuhle who is trained in sales.

“You know that everything starts from somewhere, and our first production started with a single machine in our house. We have been growing the business incrementally until we managed to set up our factory in Belmont, and a shop in Bulawayo’s central business district,” said the company’s founder and director, Stuart.

As any entrepreneur will attest, perseverance is critical. It took years of planning, savings and market research before Millenium Footwear became a household brand in Bulawayo.

The idea of a footwear manufacturing firm started at the onset of the new millennium (which explains the name), and despite having no machinery to upscale production, Millenium Footwear maintained production for several years through outsourcing services to other players in shoe manufacturing business.

The company was incorporated in 2002, at which time it was still sub-contracting bigger companies to meet its orders.

“Initially we had customers with orders but had no machinery, which is why we out-sourced the services until we purchased our own equipment,” said co-founder and administrator, Sikhangezokuhle.

And on April 18, 2004 Millenium Footwear opened its fully equipped shoe manufacturing factory in the Belmont industrial area of Bulawayo with a staff complement of eight.

It has — from its humble beginnings — grown to be counted amongst some of the leading shoe manufacturing upstarts in Zimbabwe.

The company currently boosts of 20 skilled leather workers and management says it is aiming at increasing its market share.

Millenium footwear supplies shoes to some of the biggest chain stores across the country, footwear retail shops, Government institutions, mines and schools in the country.

The company makes exotic shoes and boots in nubuck, elephant, buffalo, giraffe, crocodile, and ostrich skins.

The leather shoemaker’s major breakthroughs came by way of initiatives by the country’s trade promotion body, ZimTrade which facilitated the company’s participation at various trade shows in the region such as Namibia, Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana.

It was through ZimTrade’s mentoring that the shoe manufacturer became a big brand in its home town. It has also since become a major supplier for some of the big fashion retail outlets across Zimbabwe.

“ZimTrade gave us great exposure. They also took us on a trade mission in Italy,” said Sikhangezokuhle.

Despite the growth, the company is still struggling to operate at full capacity due to foreign currency shortages which stalls efforts to meet all orders.

Millenium Footwear is currently operating at 40 percent capacity.

“One of the factors contributing to the reduced capacity has been the high levels of cheap imports,” said Stuart.

The struggle is real.

According to the Leather and Allied Industry Federation of Zimbabwe an estimated 3,4 million pairs of shoes are imported, mainly from Far East, with duty charged at 40 percent, as well as $5 per pair plus 15 percent value added tax (VAT), which means minimum retail price should be at least $7 per pair.

But interestingly, some of these imports are being sold for much less.

At full capacity, Millenium Footwear can produce 800 pairs of shoes a day.

The firm is still supplying the local market only although looking at becoming a net exporter.

Sikhangezokuhle said the company has exported to neighbouring countries but on a small scale, mainly during trade shows with their most memorable one when Zambian president Edgar Lungu and his entourage purchased the firm’s shoes on display at a Fair in Lusaka.

“So far the only exports to talk about are the shoes we exhibit in regional fairs. The regional market appreciates the quality of our products, but it is still difficult to penetrate the market and meet demand due to foreign currency shortages. We need foreign currency even to purchase raw leather in some instances.

“If the economy improves we want to be an exporter,” she said.

But for this company it’s not just about making a buck (excuse the pun).

“We want to create jobs and hence become a source of income for hundreds, if not thousands,” said Stuart.

The country’s leather shoe industry is in need of a boost.

Prior to 2000 (ironically when the idea of Millenium Footwear was mulled) Zimbabwe produced circa 17 million pairs of leather shoes annually and comprised a vibrant leather industry consisting of highly skilled small-to-medium enterprises, including livestock farmers, hides collectors, tanners and manufacturers.

But by 2011, the country’s shoe output had declined to around one million due to a challenging economic environment, competition from cheap imports and high levels of hides and skins exports.

Millenium Footwear has significant potential to upscale its production and contribute significantly to Zimbabwe’s shoe production.

And even so, it hasn’t forgotten where it came from: Its shop in Bulawayo’s CBD also sells shoe components to help small-scale shoe makers to access raw materials easily.

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