Coega signs up first investor

ED RICHARDSON
COEGA HAS signed its first investor. A Belgian-owned niche textile company has signed a 20 year lease agreement with Coega for an investment to the tune of R200-million. Work on the new factory plant is already well-advanced, according to the Coega Development Corporation’s enterprise development manager, Nkuli Mxenge-Mayende.
Sander International Textiles, owned by Belgian investor Alex Liessen, will occupy about 10 of the total 40 hectares allocated for the textile cluster in Zone 3 of the Coega Industrial Development Zone (IDZ).
“Four years after ditching the strategy of seeking to attract an ‘anchor tenant’ for the Coega IDZ, the Coega Development Corporation has been vindicated in opting to secure a basket of investments in various sectors of industries with different financial values,” she says.
While the rest of the South African textile industry is teetering on the brink of extinction, Sander International’s South African operation, Sander International RSA (SIRSA), will produce a specialised high end niche product, fire retardant fabrics, for the automotive and transport industries including ocean liners, aircraft, as well as cater for the interior décor for upmarket hotels. The product is the latest fabric trend in the market.