Pretoria, Gauteng SA (02 November 2022) – According to a release, the South African Revenue Service (SARS) and the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic) have gone ahead with their scheme to donate tons of seized clothing, blankets, and footwear to flood victims in KwaZulu Natal.
      SAFLIA and some clothing associations objected to the idea because they believed it was open to widespread abuse.
      Project Sizani (We all Help) involves the distribution of some of the millions of tons of goods from the clothing, textile, footwear and leather industries (CTFL) that had been seized by SARS since 2018, which otherwise would have been destroyed in accordance with the Customs Act, Act 91 of 1964, administered by SARS, as well as a 2009 and 2020 NEDLAC agreement, stipulating that seized goods must be destroyed so as to avoid disruption to the South African market.
      During the first phase, which started in June this year, the donation of blankets commenced in KZN, due to the urgent need after the April floods, where hundreds of flood survivors are still living in community halls (shelters).
The second phase comprises the donation of clothing and footwear to flood victims identified in the various district municipalities of the KZN, EC and NW provinces. It is a much more intricate process, due to the due diligence that has to be conducted for each item to be donated.
        A Governance Task Team (GTT) which comprises members from SARS, the dtic, Organised Labour and the CTFL industry is responsible for the execution of the project, although other role players that play an instrumental part in the execution of the project are the National Disaster Management Committee (NDMC), the Department of Social Development (DSD), and the Offices of the various Premiers in the impacted provinces. In addition, the involvement of Business and Labour , as key stakeholders, is necessary in every step of the project, to monitor the processes and ensure any risks that may harm the local business are mitigated.
        To date, more than 28 000 blankets had been delivered to specific individuals at approximately 174 sites in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
        The KZN phase 1 (blanket distribution) pilot paved the way for the roll-out of the second phase of the project: an even more intricate and tightly controlled process as the footwear and clothing items are wrapped in individual packages for specific individuals in specific shelters before they are handed over for distribution.
This second phase of the project is currently underway in KZN after a pilot at the two smaller shelters in Inanda and one in La Mercy offered a chance to develop and refine the process even further.
      25 698 items of clothing have so far been donated to the first 31 of 74 sites in KZN. The packing, sorting and distribution to shelters continues to take place as more shipments of seized clothing arrive from Gauteng, courtesy of many shipping lines who extended their hand of goodwill to assist in transporting the containers of seized items to different parts of the country where the need has been identified.
      The project is earmarked to be concluded at the end of November 2022 with North West and Easter Cape following on the footsteps of KZN.

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA - Adidas AG will lose between €1 billion and €1.5 billion in annual sales of Yeezy product following the split last week, according to a report in Bloomberg, which also said it had been "too slow to walk away from Kanye's controversies"
"The company said the termination would have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million ($246.5 million) on its full-year net income, given the high percentage of sales in the final quarter," Bloomberg said, "but the long-term damage will be much bigger. The Yeezy partnership is estimated to generate annual sales of between €1 billion and €1.5 billion, roughly 4%-8% of Adidas’s group revenue. Shares in Adidas fell close to 5% on the news."

Adidas SA didn't respond to S&V's queries about the effect locally. We asked:
- How many SA customers stock this brand?
- How successful is it in SA?
- Have you had any reaction from your retailers?
- Are they obliged to stop selling immediately or can they sell off their stock?
- What happens to any stock on the water?
- Has the split pushed up demand and therefore price?

Pietermaritzburg, KZN, SA - Since the start of COVID 19 worldwide, we have seen shortages of chemical feedstocks from various manufacturers across the globe. The availability, at any one time, oscillated depending on which country was going into lockdown and typical supply and demand factors led to price increases over the 2020 and 2021 years.

Fast forward to 2022 and it seems we have the perfect storm:

- Putin deciding to start the Cold War again.
- OPEC using (or abusing) their cartel for the benefit of themselves.
- Reduction in the pumping of crude oil barrels (approx. 2m from OPEC).
- Gas supply nearly completely cut off to Europe from Russia (Nord stream 1 & 2).
- Manufacturers already under constraints with COVID 19.
- Eskom's inability to supply enough electricity and switching power off in the middle of manufacturing.
- Local refineries getting out of refining chemical feedstocks such as Engen who import most of their solvents since closing their plant in Durban due to the fire, Astron only recently starting up again after being shut since 2020 due to fire, and SAPREF looking to sell in part due to new onerous environmental laws leading to decreased ROI.
- Raw material manufacturers pushing out their lead times of raw material feedstocks in some cases by 20 weeks before it will even go on the water.
- Transnet strike - I heard every 1 day of strike will take up to 9 days to make up the lost time, and this was apart from their very slow and inefficient way of doing things.
      Hence, this has been building up and all just came together leading to shortages of raw materials that go into the manufacture of the adhesive. With not having enough raw materials one cannot manufacture to supply everyone and so I guess this is what we are seeing in the market. The glue manufacturers that forecast these issues should be able to ride out this wave and capitalize on some manufacturers' poor planning. Luckily, we at National Adhesive Manufacturers do not have any shortages and are well placed to supply the market - including any new customers that will be needing adhesives. We are more than happy to take on the additional volumes and look forward to being of service to the industry and beyond.
      Customers can contact me on 0333860331, info@nam.co.za or my cell on 0823015996.

East London, E. Cape, SA - Edelstein Distributors, which owns men's outfitting stores Bryant's and Woza, has bought Behr's Shoes as of 01 September from Stephen Wilken, who has retired.
      Behr's carries mostly medium-priced family footwear. It had consolidated to 1 store, in King William's Town.
      "The intention is to consolidate the business, then grow on the foundation that was laid," said Edelstein member Graham Weber. "It takes us into women's footwear, which we weren't in before."
      Edelstein has also just relocated its head office from the East London CBD to 6 Glaston St, Berea.

Johannesburg, Gauteng, SA - Business "has been showing a slight improvement", said Cedric Zoghby, with his brother Norman, a member of Atlantic Protective Clothing cc. "However, we are going into end-of-year mode, and orders are slowing down."
      He said the year overall had been tough. "We sell to smaller businesses," he said, "and many of them have either retrenched staff or have closed down. Many of them are uncertain about next year."
      He said supply hadn't been an issue, and where there were problems, their suppliers had given them adequate warning.
      "Next year? We always hope next year will be better."