Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
BULAWAYO-based tannery Wet Blue Industries is set to re-open next month, capitalising on huge stockpiles of hides at the Cold Storage Company (CSC) and other players.
The tannery was placed under provisional judicial management in September 2014 and was thereafter operating at low levels before shutting down last October.
“We’re hoping that come August we would be re-opening as we have a few leads where people including CSC among others, which l can’t name for professional reasons, have indicated that they will supply us with raw hides for processing.
“The fact that we haven’t been operating since October last year means they have stockpiles of raw hides, which can keep us going,” said Wet Blue Industries judicial manager, Mr Chrispen Mwete in an interview.
He said they are presently servicing the tannery’s machinery in preparation of resumption of operations.
The re-opening of the tannery, which is wholly-owned by CSC buttresses the Government’s economic blue-print, Zim-Asset, which among others is anchored on fostering value addition and beneficiation.
In 2014, the Government introduced a $0,75 per kilogramme levy tax on exports of raw hides in a move that was expected to boost value addition in the leather industry as well as curtail the exportation of raw hides by local abattoirs.
When the tannery closed down, it employed 53 workers, the figure is far much below 154 the company employed at its peak.
As Wet Blue Industries re-opens, Mr Mwete said they would be resuming operations with all the 53 workers and nine of its 18 machines would be operational.
“We would want to keep our costs as low as possible and thus as we re-open we’ll begin with 53 workers that we were employing before the closure of the tannery in October last year,” he said.
Wet Blue Industries, which is one of the largest tanneries in Zimbabwe last year processed 540,000 tonnes of raw hides.
Asked about when Wet Blue Industries can be taken out of judicial management, Mr Mwete said: “If we’re to have continuous operations as we re-open, it would only take us 18 months to come out of judicial management.
“We also believe that during the time, which the tannery is under judicial management, it has the potential to generate income enough to sustain its operations.”