COMPANY PROFILE 3

Imraan Textile Mills – which produces woven fabric mainly for the local apparel market – is located in the hills of Mtwalume on the South Coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The Bux family became a minority shareholder of the company on the eve of the new democracy in 1994. Within a matter of years, the company, like many other textile mills, faced intense competition from the influx of cheaper imported clothing as the economy opened up to international competition in the post-1994 period. While the small-fledging company survived in part through the use of new technologies, many others closed their doors.

With the sector shrinking, it led the majority share-holders to offer an opportunity to the minority shareholders to buy out the company. At that point, the Bux family approached the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to assist with capital to fund a buy-out. The IDC funding made it possible to not only buy the company but also purchase raw materials and continue operating the business. By this stage, the company was producing on average between 120 000 meters of textiles a month. The turning point came after the introduction of the Production Incentive Programme (PIP) by the dtic in 2009. This incentive formed part of a range of measures introduced by the government after the economy lost around one million jobs in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis.