Powerhouse Clothing Company (Pty) Ltd: Compound growth in an industry under siege

Nov. 20, 2011 - PRLog -- The Powerhouse Clothing Company is one of South Africa’s most flexible and innovative clothing manufacturers. The company is 100 percent dedicated to manufacturing solely in South Africa, despite a growing competition from companies in the East and cheap imports from outside SA being at all time high in the clothing industry.

As a result of Powerhouse’s aim to be a wholly South African company, its supply chain is one of its most important operating focuses. “If your supply chain is not working in tandem together then everything falls apart,” notes Justin Mansfield, the Managing Director of Powerhouse.

Although the company’s in-house knitting operation – Powerknit – is responsible for producing 70 percent of its capacity, the remainder is again outsourced from local knitting mills. Powerhouse also has a close working relationship with three dye houses and has built up a 20 year partnership with its key screen printer. Located just next door to the company, this printing partner set-up-shop at the same time as Powerhouse and prints 80 percent of its garments. “The majority of our supply chain has been with us since inception,” Mansfield adds.

It is Powerhouse’s loyal local mindset that has enabled it to be shielded from the effects of the recession and economic uncertainty and Mansfield believes the weaker Rand has encouraged more stores to source locally rather than importing products from outside of South Africa.

Read the full report on Powerhouse as:  http://www.africanbusinessreview.co.za/reports/powerhouse...

About Powerhouse Clothing Company

The company was formed in 1986 and it has evolved from selling its products at flea markets to infiltrating the bulk of the country’s major retail chains. When the current management team – Managing Director Justin Mansfield and Sales Director Nadeen Horwood – joined Powerhouse in 1992, there was a staff of 12 with a turnover of R20 million. Today the company employs 165 people with an annual turnover in excess of R200 million.

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