Thursday 25 November 2004

This site will be updated on 2 December 2004.

Business - Sakenuus

• Paarl se top Shiraz aangewys
• Retrenched
• Agriculture serious about BEE
• Paarlite names new ship

MORE bad news as far as employment is concerned, has hit Paarl this week.

Following the announcement that upholstery manufacturer Court Fabrics is to close down on 15 December, leaving its 200 employees jobless, Berg River Textiles is also set to retrench between 70 and 80 workers next month.

From its heyday of 3000 employees in the 1970's, Berg River shrunk its workforce to 600 in the 1990's.

Last year the weaving section was closed down, and this year the wet processing (spinning and dyeing section) will close down. The remaining 200 employees will mostly be involved in printing and finishing of products.

Said MD Ben Vermooten: "The low cost of Eastern imports, and the strength of the rand, has rendered local manufacturing uncompetititive.

"We will now concentrate on the small, quick turnaround decoration niche for the apparel and bed linen trade."

Last week Paarl Post reported that Table Bay Spinners in Wellington is also in the process of retrenching about 70 workers.

THE "how" of sustainable broad-based black empowerment was addressed by Agri Wes-Cape at a conference in Paarl last week.  More than 60 delegates attended the Wes-Cape Agri-business conference.

Mohammed Karaan, Agricultural Economics Lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch, said that it was time to be honest with one another about empowerment "to ensure that the next ten years of democracy address the real issues of BEE."  

He identified a number of key success factors to make the initiative economically viable and bring about 'trade-ability' of assets. 

"It is crucial that tangible short term results are achieved to ensure sustained buy-in. The cost of land is one of the main factors that could keep BEE from achieving its goals." 

He identified a number of models that can assist in working towards sustainable broad-based BEE, including crop sharing, profit and equity sharing, housing, community projects, preferred suppliers as well as the extension of assets through empowerment schemes.

"The starting point for empowerment should be the development of human capital. If you do one thing, start with this!", said Mohammed.

Carl Opperman, CEO of Agri Wes-Cape, felt that the conference was one step closer to assisting the agricultural community in implementing sustainable BEE initiatives.

"The success of BEE will ultimately be to the benefit of all role-players, bringing about wealth creation and empowerment for all."

SAFMARINE NOMAZWE, the first of Safmarine's two new, larger, faster container ships purpose-built for the Europe-South Africa trade, was named on Saturday by Paarlite Andrea van Wyk in the Danish port of Odense.

Andrea is the wife of Riaan van Wyk, managing director of Colors Fruit export company.

Several of South Africa's most prominent producer-exporters, as well  as major European importers of South African refrigerated produce, joined Safmarine in celebrating the historic occasion, which took place at the Odense Steel shipyard.

The new vessel takes its name from the South African Xhosa language meaning 'bearer of many nations'.

Safmarine Nomazwe has a length of 266 metres, a breadth of 37 metres and a capacity of 3 700 twenty-foot containers.

The ship has been built applying the latest available technology, making it one of the most modern container vessels in the world.

Safmarine Nomazwe is equipped with an 8-cylinder HSD-Wärtsilä Sulzer diesel engine, which develops 45,700 kW at 102 revolutions per minute – equivalent to 62,200 BHP.

After delivery around New Year, Safmarine Nomazwe will enter into Safmarine Container Lines liner service between South Africa and Europe.

Safmarine Nomazwe, which has a crew of 15, is registered in London and will be commanded by Captain Leon Peter Strydom with Stanley Broers as chief engineer.

This vessel will be one of the largest vessels to call at South African ports.

Colors Fruit is a very important Safmarine customer, and Mrs van Wyk was invited by the company to act as the vessel sponsor, in recognition of Colors' support of Safmarine.

Paarl-based Colors Fruit is currently one of South Africa's top three producers and exporters of fresh fruit. The company is privately owned by South African shareholders.

Colors is active in the production, packaging, cooling and marketing of fresh fruit to international markets. The company exports South African fruit to America, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, South East Asia and the Far East.

The company offers a door-to-door service and uses partners such as Safmarine to deliver produce to its customers.

Safmarine, as main shipping partner, specialises in taking the fruit from Colors' cold rooms to its vessels and delivering the fruit on-site to Colors Fruit customers.

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