Zambezi Tanners gets machinery

TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO 

Bulawayo based leather company, Zambezi Tanners, has taken delivery of  80% machinery imported from Italy, which will see production increasing10-folds, Business Times can report.

Speaking during the tour of the company last week, Zambezi Tanners general manager, Arnold Britten, said the company sourced its foreign currency from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s foreign currency auction system.

“Last year we approached our banker, BancABC who facilitated a loan facility for us to be able to procure machinery for retooling. Thanks to the Government auction system it allowed us to purchase foreign currency from the auction system. We invested about US$620 000 for us to buy machinery from Italy,” Britten said.

He said the machinery would be officially commissioned  in February next year. The company wanted to commission the machinery in September.

“The new unit would increase production tenfold from processing 20 000 square feet of  hides on the cattle side to 200 000 per month,” Britten said.

Meanwhile the Minister of State  for Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Judith Ncube, who toured the company last week said she was impressed by development taking place at Zambezi Tanners.

She said the company was progressing in line with government’s economic blueprint, the National Development Strategy .“They (Zambezi Tanners) are making us proud as a country.

“The Vice President launched the leather cluster and we are taking it seriously. We would want to work hand in hand with our farmers. We need to come up with central points in these villages so that our parents and farmers would know where to take their hides at that level,” she said.

Ncube said the new machinery bought by the company will  increase capacity and create employment.