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This week, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos, visited the revamped Prestige clothing manufacturing plant in Epping. Read more below:

The factory is one of the production sites of The Foschini Group (TFG), one of the biggest clothing and textile retailers in the country. More than 1 350 Capetonians work at the Epping plant and over 3 000 employees work for the company in the province. 

Prestige Clothing (now owned by TFG) is a founding member of the Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster (CCTC), the City’s Special Purpose Vehicle in the industry. The CCTC has been working with TFG over the last 15 years to support the improved competitiveness of the local value chain, ensuring buying locally makes business sense. 

‘In 2022, the group produced 17 million garments in South Africa, up from 6 million in 2016. With over 23 800 people working in the industry, clothing and textile is the second largest employer within Cape Town’s manufacturing sector. But it is worth noting that there is scope for growth in this regard. Research by the CCTC has found that at least 20 000 jobs can be created in the sector in the Mother City alone based on increasing local sourcing,’ said Alderman Vos.

The CCTC is an industry-led, public-private partnership of retailers, manufacturers and public sector stakeholders that works to build a globally competitive clothing and textile industry in the Western Cape through the development of quick response capabilities, manufacturing productivity improvement programmes, skills development, and market access initiatives. 

One of the Cluster’s projects, the Business Accelerator Programme, which assists small clothing and textile businesses in Cape Town to become suppliers to large retailers, resulted in the signing of new contracts worth millions of rands this past year. 

‘Towards this end, the City, through the Economic Growth Directorate, is directing more funds towards the Cluster. With these funds, the Cluster will expand its programmes to upskill people, boost SMMEs, and build investment opportunities,’ said Alderman Vos. 

The City is channelling further support to clothing and textile manufacturing via the Craft + Design Institute (CDI), through whom the City administers the Cape Skills and Employment Accelerator Project. 

Under the project, a group of 119 young Capetonians recently celebrated their graduation after training at 45 manufacturing SMMEs based in areas around the metro including Lakeside, Masiphumelele, Tableview, Brackenfell and Claremont. The CDI facilitated the programme. 

‘Over the next financial year (July 2023 – June 2024), the City has allocated R41 million in its ‘Building Hope’ Budget to direct economic incentives to attract jobs and investors to Cape Town. This is to build on the successes made through our SPV programme in the previous year in which more than R10,85 billion in investments was facilitated, 8 718 jobs were created, and 3 497 people were trained for work in the metro’s high-value industries. With our projects and programmes, we will continue to lay the foundations for a stronger economy that supports more people and makes Cape Town the easiest place in Africa to do business,’ said Alderman Vos.

Issued by The City of Cape Town