Saturday, November 2, 2024

‘Business partnerships create jobs’ – Siwawa

The business partnership between Power Fusion (PF) Solutions and Australian Securities Exchange (ASE) listed Bisley Workwear (BW) will not only diversify products and services procurement but also save export funds and create employment, says the Botswana Chamber of Mines Chairman, Charles Siwawa.

He said that, as the work wear market gains a substantial market share locally, there would be sufficient economic mileage to justify manufacturing them locally.

“The PF/BW joint partnership is a welcome development in Botswana because it enables the industrial sector to have different products on the market that are aimed at high level service delivery,” Siwawa said when launching Bisley’s protective wear products in Botswana. “It also provides Bisley with a lucrative business opportunity and committal to the development of clothing that delivers occupational health and safety innovation.

“BW’s workwear has different categories of protection, ranging from general to hazardous environments, including fire resistant, anti-static, insect protection and anti-bacterial workwear. The flame resistant materials will protect against arc flash, flash fire molten metal, radiant heat and chemical splash. All these are hazards that an ordinary worker find themselves exposed to on a daily basis in particular in the mining industry.”

Siwawa said anti-static wear has been designed to eliminate the build-up static electricity through a thread, negstatic, which actively dissipates electrical charge before accumulation. Insect protection covers the worker against insect bites, such as mosquitoes, ticks, lice or bed bugs.

Likewise, anti-bacteria fabric works like a build-in deodorizer preventing the development of distasteful odours caused by bacteria. “As can be seen, there is a wide range of protection against a majority of the conditions encountered in the workplace, adding significant value to the protection of employees in the workplace,” Siwawa said.

The arrival of BW to Botswana, by virtue of being the second largest protective workwear manufacturer in New Zealand, also spreads its footprint onto the African continent. Furthermore, partnership with a citizen-owned company re-enforces the government’s policy of economic diversification and complements industry to achieve this goal. As the mining industry is growing at a fast rate, PF should give serious consideration to the commercial viability of the support services providing protective workwear, he said.

The PF agent as well as Managing Director of Tetrylus Incorporation, William Moeti, said the decision to establish a business depot for Bisley’s unique protective wear was arrived at after the former, (registered in 2007), won the best award for the most enhanced engineering and technical support at an expo. Having identified BW, which attended the same expo as the willing partner, the PF directorate bought the idea of bringing the brand to SADC and eventually the rest of Africa, with Botswana as the starting point.

“Bisley’s partnership is milestone event in Botswana’s protective wear provision history,” said Moeti. “The customer focused evolution and innovation initiatives have led to the manufacture and distribution of occupational health & safety apparel, worker comfort and climatic influences regional specific designs and industry sector designs in mining, construction, petrochemicals, petrol and gas.”

PF Finance Manager, Ato Appiah, said as the sole BW network product distributor it offered a wide range of the products at the most Australian dollar based competitive prices. Considering the high quality, price ranges are affordable for the serious investor aimed at protecting the workforce as the greatest corporate asset.
“For instance, retail prices for the multi-purpose bomber jacket (range from P517 to P530), anti-bacterial shirt (about P430), heat-management shirt/pants (about P500), insect protection shirt and pants (P385 to P451), anti-bacterial socks (about P112), mosquito wrist band (P48) and fire resistant overall (about P1245),” said Appiah.

Gazal Corporation Limited Executive Director, David Gazal, said the group, founded by the late Joe Gazal in 1958, launched Bisley Workwear in the summer of 2001, which had previously been the manufacturer of competitor work shirts with a long history of housebrands. With the Gazal family owning 70 percent of the shareholding, sales for the 2011 financial year amounted to Australian $173 million is forecast to increase to $276 million in 2012 employing 1200 people. During the period under review the asset base is forecast to increase from $173 million.

“We are upbeat about the PF/BW partnership and hold a multi-branded strategy, concentrating on core product categories such as business wear, intimate apparel, work wear and school wear,” said Gazal.

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