Small and medium-sized Clothing and textile manufacturing enterprises from across Cape Town recently took part in the two-day ‘Origin8: From Start-up to Scale-up’ programme designed to capacitate them to meet the needs of national retailers and expose them to world-class manufacturing. Read more below:
Administered by the Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster (CCTC) and funded by the City of Cape Town, Origin8 is a flagship programme aimed to equip SMEs with practical tools and skills that can be immediately applied to help them evolve from a start-up to a scale-up in the industry.
‘SMEs are vital to our localisation efforts. By giving them the tools to scale their operations and integrate into value chains, we will see an increase in the number of ‘made in South Africa’ goods in our stores, thereby keeping and growing local jobs, and supporting families across Cape Town,’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos.
Day one of the programme saw the business owners learn valuable insights about the demands of major consumers through a facilitated panel discussion with representatives from Ackermans, Woolworths and The Foschini Group (TFG), some of South Africa’s biggest clothing and textile retail chains. Thereafter, they got their hands busy with a practical comp-shop analysis aimed to elevate their understanding of retail-quality products.
The following day, the SMEs went on a guided tour of TFG’s Prestige Clothing in Epping to see world-class manufacturing in action and how this could be applied in their own processes.
‘Cape Town’s clothing and textile manufacturing industry continues to go from strength to strength. Last year, the industry contributed R5,6 billion to Cape Town’s economy while 105 million garments were produced in the city. Projects such as Origin8 will create better linkages between small manufacturers and key industry corporations, ultimately opening doors for growth opportunities. It has been exceptionally rewarding to work with the CCTC on the Origin8 project and I look forward to seeing the ripple effects which it is sure to have on Cape Town’s clothing and textile manufacturing industry,’ said Alderman Vos.