National Blankets to cash in on winter

National Blankets is targeting to increase production levels this winter from an average 20% to 50% but it requires more than $3 million working capital.

National Blankets manufactures a wide variety of products ranging from high-tech blankets such as airline blankets to quality furpile and felted products, relief blankets and woven products.

According to the acting chief executive officer Freedom Dube said they would take advantage of the cold season which normally generates high demand for blankets.

"We're aiming to increase our production this winter season to about 50 percent taking advantage of the increased demand of our product during the winter season.

"We've embarked on a revival strategy to turn around the company. In February, we were operating at between 16 and 20 percent capacity."

However, Dube said cheap imported textile products from the Far East was a cause for concern

"Due to the influx of imported textile products from the Far East, we no longer have that monopoly on the market. As a result of competition and our product being seasonal, we're not able to get finance to stimulate production to competitive levels at the pace we want it to be.

"We're also going to capitalise on the winter season to increase our production and sales," he said.

To date the firm is producing an average 200,000 blankets per year compared to a historical capacity of two million.

At its peak, National Blankets employed about 5,000 workers compared to 65 at present.