Head of the fashion accessory company, Westcor, Malcom Westmore, tells OFM News that the company’s factory was initially based in Johannesburg, but around 1984 their interest in developing local production combined with the incentive from the then government, to take business to the people, resulted in a big move to the modest town of Botshabelo located over 60km outside Bloemfontein in the Free State, and over 400km away from the city of gold. The company’s distribution point is still in Johannesburg.

Westmore says the reason they chose the town which falls under the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality, is because it is centrally located and was at the time a high benefit area. He mentions that there was an interesting labour force in the area, “people who were keen to do this kind of work”, he adds. Westcor thrived around this time, with high duty tariffs making importing unviable. “We were supplying most of the fashion retailers,” he says. Once the system of apartheid ended, South Africa re-joined the rest of the world – in reference to the sanctions that were previously placed on the country under the pre-1994 government – conforming to international duty tariffs. “There was a tiered reduction of import duty tariffs in this category. Which meant over a period of five years, duty dropped from 120% to 20%,” explains Westmore. This resulted in less duty being paid for imports, making it increasingly unviable for local producers to compete with cheap imports.

With the business struggling to thrive, Westcor decided to transfer assets to a staff trust around four or five years ago, effectively becoming a wholly owned staff business, in an effort to thank staff at the company, some of whom had been with the jewellery company since the big jump from Johannesburg to Botshabelo. Things became increasingly difficult around three years ago as retailers were now sourcing jewellery from countries in the East for much cheaper, “we were unable to compete with those prices mainly because that 20% everyone pays on duty, we have to pay for raw materials as well”, laments the owner. He says Customs was charging them for the raw materials they sourced as if it was a finished product, placing Westcor and others like the company at a “price disadvantage”.

The Naledi Jewellery, now displayed in about 50 Woolworths stores was born out of the struggle to keep the Botshabelo-based factory going. The company brainstormed the idea of a jewellery line that was made in Africa and later approached Woolworths as a potential buyer. The retailer jumped on board after hearing the concept and the initial designs. The Naledi “star” Jewellery line was officially launched around the middle of 2018.

Westmore says they met with Woolworths before Christmas shutdown to discuss the way forward for 2019. He says the multinational retailer has requested that the company doubles production of the Naledi line as it is “flying off the shelves”, he says. 

Woolworths is planning on rolling out the Naledi jewellery to another 50 stores countrywide. This means that the product will be available in 100 Woolies stories by the end of 2019. The arrangement between the retailer and the company is an exclusive one, meaning Woolworths are the sole distributors of Naledi in South Africa. The company’s owner said that there has been interest from overseas, and they are looking into exporting the product to the United Kingdom.

The Botshabelo factory employs roughly around 50 people permanently and between 100 and 200 on seasonal contracts, during peak times. Factory manager, Carien Schriefer, forms a part of the design process and the production. The Cape Town office oversees the process from there. Westcore is of the view that the line is doing well because of the styling “the modern South African woman wants contemporary fashion, but it can’t look like it’s come from China… contemporary fashion with a twist”, says the company head. Westmore believes that people are not only reacting to the styling but the narrative as well, that we can make our own products, locally instead of being a dumping ground for other countries.

One of the employees at the factory, Lucia Nyane, says she has been at the company since 2013. Most of the women are single parents like Nyane who is a widow and has to provide for her children. Schriefer says the line was created to keep the Botshabelo-based factory going and it appears to be doing just that.

“It’s a beautiful piece of jewellery made by beautiful people,” concludes Westmore.

OFM News