Martin Kadzere

Twine and Cordage Group, a leading agro-processing and manufacturing company in Zimbabwe and across Africa, has embarked on a five-year turnaround programme to ramp up production, meet growing demand and enhance its regional foothold.

Speaking to journalists during a factory tour in Harare, chief executive Mr Terrence Chimanya revealed that the five-year programme, dubbed “Project Phoenix,’ was designed to cement the company’s local and regional footprint by boosting manufacturing capacity and market share across Africa.

The company specialises in the beneficiation of natural cotton and synthetic fibre (polymer) products.

Its diverse product portfolio, which uses both synthetic and natural fibres, allows it to serve multiple sectors.

The synthetic line includes vital industrial and agricultural items such as shade-netting, baler twines, ski-ropes, polysteel ropes, and strapping. The agro-processing division beneficiates cotton lint to produce market-specific items like tobacco twines, essential for farmers preparing exports, as well as cotton baling twine for sewing wool packs, cotton braided ropes and mutton cloth.

“We still play a big part in the country’s agro-systems,” said Mr Chimanya. “We sell at least 60 percent of our products locally. The other 40 percent goes to regional countries . . . our workers are working on exports for Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique. We have just done Kenya, which we dispatched this week.”

The turnaround is multifaceted, underpinned by a recent US$1 million investment in plant modernisation to boost production efficiency. It also includes several key initiatives: a fresh shareholder capital injection to improve raw material availability, a shift toward reducing fixed overhead costs through labour rationalisation and the forging of local and regional strategic manufacturing partnerships to mitigate the impact of power outages and ensure continuous operation.

Furthermore, the company has implemented executive management changes designed to enhance dynamism and drive the new strategic direction.

Mr Chimannya confirmed that the strategy had seen the company achieve an output level that the company had not reached in four years.

The company exports 40 percent of its products to African and international markets, extending as far as Canada.

The products serve diverse clients across the agricultural, textile, household, horticulture, fishing, packaging, and industrial sectors.

Established in 1948, Twine and Cordage has weathered several economic challenges that have buried many other companies in the cotton value chain and related sectors.

The company’s ownership is split between the Mangwana Opportunities Fund, which holds a controlling 60,7 percent stake and Twine & Cordage UK, which holds the remaining 39,3 percent.

Twine and Cordage’s retail division operates a network of seven branches, strategically located in major agricultural areas. It plans a significant expansion to 20 branches to vastly improve customer reach.

The company’s prospects appear bright, underpinned by the country’s growing agricultural sector, especially the tobacco and horticultural industries, which are major consumers of the group’s products.

The company is currently working with the Government to produce bar-coded nets; this innovation aims to aid anti-poaching efforts by allowing authorities to trace the net’s original buyer upon seizure. Regionally, the company remains the main supplier of fishing nets to Mozambique.

These nets are sustainably designed with specific mesh sizes to allow smaller fish to escape for breeding, supporting the health of the regional fish stocks.

“This year, we celebrated 76 years in existence as a partner to agribusiness across Africa. We are one of the leading manufacturing agri-processing companies in Zimbabwe and across Africa,” said Mr Chimanya.

Twine and Cordage Group operates through five key divisions that cover the entire value chain, from raw material beneficiation to retail distribution.

Twine and Cordage Manufacturers focuses on the processing of natural cotton lint into finished products, Knits and Ropes handles the production of synthetic products, including ropes and nets, while Tanzi Zimbabwe serves as the group’s retail division, managing the expansion of its branch network.

Bulk Stock Distribution manages logistics and transport, using its own fleet of trucks to move goods to both local and regional markets and Twine and Cordage South Africa supports the Zimbabwean operations through toll manufacturing arrangements.

Courtesy of heraldonline.co.zw