Almeda Textile, one of Ethiopia’s largest vertically integrated textile company which supplies apparel to Sweden’s fast fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz has concluded its Br86 million expansion that took place over the past six months in Adwa city to increase its fabric production capacity by 100pc.

The expansion is the first of three stages and it was mainly focused on replacing machinery with the latest products. The company imported Rieter brand C-70 carding machines, a New Draw Frame finisher machine and an Open End R-35 from Germany and Switzerland , as well as a Muratec winding machine from Japan. The new machines are said to be easy to maintain, and demand fewer spare parts when compared to the replaced machinery.

Moreover, the new machinery saves energy and takes lesser time to power on and off. They are easy to manage and enhance their productivity, said Tekelemariam Tesfu, general manager of the factory.

Spinning, the production of thread, which used to yield 20,000kg per day will now increase five-fold. This will enable the company to fulfil its own production requirements, and also look for export opportunities, thereby saving 30 million Br to 40 million Br. These costs are incurred by Almeda annually for the purchase of thread from other factories.

For the remaining production processes, resources and capacity will be better utilized. Because of the increase in the production at the spinning stage, the weaving and fabric making will also increase, making use of existing machinery for the latter two. Weaving will reach 32,000m of textile roll from the former output of 24,000m a day - an increase of 33pc; while the fabric making will be doubled to 7,000kg.

The installation and commissioning of the equipment was handled by the company's technicians, in collaboration with three experts from the suppliers.

Almeda has at its disposal, 205 million Br in revenue collected from the local market and an additional three million dollars from exports in the past half year. It has secured all of its costs for the expansion from Development Bank of Ethiopia.

The plant lies on a 450,000sqm plot of land in Adwa, a town, 1,125km north of Addis Abeba; and was established two decades ago under the umbrella of the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT),

Raw material, such as cotton, is sourced from its sister company, Hiwot Farm Mechanization, located in Humera, as well as from other farms in Afar, Gambella and the Southern Nations, Nationalities & Peoples Regions. The textile sector in general is said be performing beneath the actual quantitative and qualitative demands on the sector. In the 2014/15 harvest season, the total production was 43,000tn of cotton, produced from 60ha to 70ha while the demand was 100,000tn to 120,000tn.

Tekelemariam said that in addition to its export destination in the USA, Canada and Europe, the factory is assessing opportunities