Durban, KZN, SA – Caprini Footwear is restructuring and has NOT closed, MD Sanjay Pattundeen said last week.

He said Caprini had had no work for March and April, “but now I’m preparing to restart a scaled down Caprini next month”.

Caprini supplies chains, wholesalers and mini-chains, and it has an export customer in a neighbouring state. 

Northampton, UK – Leather technician Ken Moakes, who retired back to the UK after many years with various tanning chemical companies in SA, died suddenly last Monday, aged 79. An obituary will follow in the May issue of S&V African Leather. 

Umhlanga, KZN, SA – An investigation by SAFLIA has shown that online retailer Temu, which officially launched in South Africa on 17 January, is selling non-compliant safety footwear in SA. SAFLIA signed up to the site and ordered a style labelled as ‘Men's Summer Mesh Steel Toe Shoes Breathable Work Safety Shoes Industrial Construction Sneakers Walking’ for which it paid R679, including 30% import duty, marked down from R1129.

All safety footwear in SA must be approved by the National Retailer for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) as being compliant with the safety standard ISO 20345 and its SA equivalent, SANS 20345. Each approved style is issued with a number which must be permanently attached to the shoe.

In terms of separate country of origin legislation, all imported footwear must have the country of origin permanently attached to the shoe. The ‘made in China’ information on the shoes was on the same adhesive – i.e. impermanent – sticker identifying the materials used – in this case, rubber or plastic and textile upper, rubber or plastic lining and sock, and rubber or plastic sole.

The NRCS was approached for comment on Friday, and this morning replied: “This communication serves to inform you that proper investigation into the matter below will be done. As the CMM department we wish to extend our appreciation for your assistance in making sure that the market is removing the non-compliant commodities and that everyone in the industry complies to the rules and regulations.”

Temu was approached for comment via its customer service site. It responded that it has a legal team that checked legal requirements in all markets it served.

“Temu has bypassed the whole NRCS system,” SAFLIA executive director Jirka Vymĕtal said on Friday. “This product should have been stopped by Customs. The NRCS has to act to stop it.

“Frankly, the safety footwear being offered by Temu is a threat to the entire safety footwear industry in SA, importers as well as manufacturers. Compliant safety footwear suppliers have to fund the cost of compliance.”

He said the application of duties on the shoes was also being investigated by SAFLIA.

Note: This is an ongoing article. 

Cape Town, W. Cape, SA – We had an exceptional year last year, no complaints. September and October were a bit challenging because of the rugby, but for many people a pint and a braai were more important than shopping.

January and February were pretty consistent. March was tough, but still slightly up on last year.

One thing I have noticed is that since covid, Sundays generally, public holidays, long weekends, and Easter are now a write off – a lot of people go away, and they can’t afford to travel and shop – cash is limited.

We were pretty much on the back foot at the beginning of April, but since cold weather started there has been an uptick.

It has been quite stressful trying to get stock into port – in fact, a nightmare. It used to take 35-40 days to get stock into our DC after shipping, but this year it took 3 months. But we are there now, and trade has improved.

Overall, margins have decreased, and inflation has been unreal. As retailers, we must wheel and deal, and offer value. We are spending a lot on marketing, working social media, getting the brand right, being aggressive, because we have to trade.

The election has been a spanner in the works, and we see a resistance to opening wallets. We hope the outcome is positive. We have to get through it, and after a couple of months it should be okay. We have to keep on getting ahead. 

Howick, KZN, SA - Despite to the rumours doing the rounds, Bresan Footwear is not in business rescue, but like a lot of businesses in the manufacturing sector, we have been affected by the current state of the South African economy.

Post lockdown, the business climate has changed and while we regained our production levels to pre covid levels in 2021, we lost considerable ground in 2022. This was further compounded by our factory move during December 2022 along with the load shedding plague of 2023.

While the greater part of 2023 has been a struggle, we have finally settled down from our move, but the massive drop in production volume has taken its toll. We were hoping for a better second half of the year, but our order book is way down on previous years.

The current situation has highlighted a number of areas of concern and weakness within our business model, and we are working to rebuild and improve on how we do things. To this end we are looking closely at what we offer and will be making considerable changes to ensure sustainable employment for our staff going forward.

We intend to continue servicing BBF with CMT uppers for as long as they need us while we completely restructure our footwear offering on the fashion side. The economic struggle is real, but we are still in the game and have some exciting plans for 2024.