2021 Forecast - Components Cluster: On hold for now
Published: 10th Dec 2020
Pinetown, KZN, SA - The Components Cluster, the newest cluster in the leather value chain, was proposed as a means of resurrecting South Africa's components manufacturing capacity, decimated during the long years of imported footwear domination.
Cluster chairman and Apeco MD Mark Gibbings said trying to get it up and running had been "an arduous and unsatisfying journey".
"In this terrible year, there have been many challenges," he said. "Right now, every business is concentrating on its own survival. In terms of the cluster itself, the goalposts keep shifting, and it hasn't made much progress.
"The appetite for pushing it is just not there, especially at this time of year.
"It's something we will have to turn our attention back to in the New Year."
This article s part of a feature set of articles that were published in S&V Footwear & Leather Goods Magazine Vol83 No11 November 2020
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