Over 10,000 jackets and parkas are made daily at a 24,000-square-foot facility in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, supplying high-street stores and brands throughout the United States and Europe.
While Pink Mango and C&D Products’ factory is relatively modest compared to their worldwide competitors, the companies have big plans to expand throughout Africa, enter the high-end fashion industry, and grow their local clientele. The goal is to minimize the dependency of African and international fashion businesses on Far Eastern production.
Maryse Mbonyumutwa, co-founder and CEO of Pink Mango, adds, “There is a very urgent need to reduce the dependency on China production, and the need has become more urgent and pressing since Covid-19.”
More than 20 years have passed since the Pink Mango C&D Group began producing clothing. Mbonyumutwa and C&D Products co-owner Gordon Gu manufacture their wares in three different locations: Belgium, Hong Kong, and a brand new factory in Rwanda that launched in 2019. The company’s clientele includes European supermarkets Aldi and Tesco, as well as the Spanish Tendam Group, the German Otto Group, and the American brand house G-III Apparel Group (owner of DKNY and a license holder for Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, among others).
Establishing a manufacturing facility in Africa was always the goal. Mbonyumutwa adds, “There are about 1.4 billion people in Africa, and for the time being, we are still dressed by other continents.” “Even if we are not exporting, production is needed for
[brands in Africa].”
Despite the logistical difficulties of making huge quantities of apparel in a landlocked nation, the team decided to set up shop in Rwanda, Mbonyumutwa’s country of origin. “When we approached them with a project in hand that could create 10,000 jobs, [the Rwandan government] took a very business-oriented approach, and they supported us,” says Mbonyumutwa. The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) provided free storage space for the first five years, and Pink Mango put $6 million into the project.
The facility “will not only enable us to increase our exports but also reduce imports of clothing,” Emmanuel Hategeka, RDB’s deputy CEO and COO, stated when the contract was finalized. He said this would encourage other businesses in the garment sector, including those involved in dyeing, knitting, and weaving, as well as accessory suppliers, to set up shop in Rwanda.
Mbonyumutwa claims the initiative has already produced 4,600 jobs and has the potential to address a wide range of issues, including youth unemployment, women’s unemployment, and export programs.
It’s a huge boost for the Made in Africa market. “it’s a new manufacturing location which is cheaper than China, and has access to the European or American market, which are the big volume drivers,” she adds, explaining why nations like Kenya and Ethiopia are becoming more popular as manufacturing locations.
According to Virusha Subban, a partner specializing in customs and trade and head of tax at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg, “boosting Africa’s manufacturing capacity will add strong links to Africa’s regional supply chain, improve intra-African trade, and reduce Africa’s reliance on foreign imports.” “Many African countries have begun looking into ways to improve their manufacturing capacity so that they can produce local products and components that don’t need to be imported and that can be traded within the continent.”
According to fashion industry expert Jacqueline Shaw, who created the B2B platform Fashion Africa Trade Expo to link African manufacturers, artisans, and designers with foreign buyers and designers, there is a growing need for clothing production on the continent. Retailers and established companies alike see this as a chance to increase production. For them, it’s a chance to diversify into an underserved market and reduce overall exposure to danger. There’s a market for locally made apparel in Africa, not simply because of the growing middle class.
Mbonyumutwa, an African-made worldwide brand, is expanding into high fashion to meet consumer demand. A cotton T-shirt from her Asantii line retails for $59, while a handwoven double-breasted coat costs $950. The brand was released directly to consumers last month. Candice Fragis, advisor, was the purchasing and merchandising director at Farfetch. Vanessa Anglin, brand and business director at Asantii, was vice president of product development at Burberry for women’s, children’s, and accessory lines.
According to Mbonyumutwa, Asantii is the first globally style-led brand to be conceived, procured, and manufactured entirely inside Africa. She believes this will place Rwanda on the global manufacturing map while demonstrating Africa’s potential as a hub for high fashion and challenging the worldwide view of Made in Africa.
She does concede, however, that the Kigali facility “needs to have a completely different philosophy” to attract other premium and luxury companies. She notes that the manufacturing unit differs from her other enterprises in the East on all fronts, from the management teams to the garment workers.
Staff upskilling has been a challenge. You need to double or quadruple your training [budget] if you’re starting a business in a country with no history of garment manufacture, and you have to provide items of international quality while competing with businesses that have been there for 40–50 years in China or 20–25 years in Bangladesh. (She may spend up to $1,500 on employee training.) The next stage is to send teams from Italian and Portuguese companies to Rwanda to teach and educate the locals there to make high-end clothing.
To encourage young African fashion designers
The designers behind Asantii’s collections are some of Africa’s most promising new talents, such as Chloe Assam (currently the manager of Ghana operations for The OR Foundation), Emmanuel Okoro (from Nigeria), Zak Koné (from Ivory Coast), and Natasha Jaume (from South Africa) and Carina Louw (from the United Kingdom). The factory will eventually start making products for these designers’ labels. Mbonyumutwa notes that after making goods for Asantii for the first 18 to 24 months, the company will begin making goods for the 16 designers that make up the Asantii team.
Zak Koné, 34, is one of the designers; he manufactures about 200 pieces monthly in his Ivory Coast workshop. Kone says he wants to avoid sourcing from countries like Turkey for materials and manufacturing for his next collection. He adds, “My main motivation is to promote Made in Africa, from the craft to the artisans,” so you know he thinks making things on the continent is crucial.
Some of the challenges that new African designers encounter include a lack of resources and a need to manufacture in smaller numbers. Because “they want big quantities and prefer to work with European brands,” says Kone, these factors make it challenging for designers to collaborate with manufacturers on the European continent. “You can’t just produce ten pieces or one or two items; you need to produce 2000 or 3000 pieces,” which is “really, really difficult for young brands like us.” Pink Mango wants to help emerging designers get beyond this problem. The Rwandan factory will eventually allow designers like Kone to access industrial production in lower numbers.
Mbonyumutwa predicts that “we will hopefully have reached some economies of scale soon enough,” and the factory would be available to “any other brands in Africa.” What I’d want to see out of this unit is a factory set up to meet the demands of niche African brands that don’t sell in large enough volumes to justify shipping overseas. Mbonyumutwa also hopes to instruct African labels on industrial production by, for instance, instructing designers on how to put together technical packaging.
However, not all African designers have the same interest in mass manufacturing; others would rather make fewer of each collection. Moshions was founded in 2015 by Rwandan designer Moses Turahirwa, who is not on Asantii’s roster. Turahirwa prefers to curate a small collection with intricate handiwork, such as beading or hand-dyed pieces, that he claims cannot be mass-produced or manufactured. From the hands of the seamstress to those of the craftsman who embroiders and then to those of the artist who has colored the fibers, everything is done by hand. Things can’t be mass-produced,” Turahirwa adds, noting that the rest of the fashion business could learn much from African designers who create high-quality items on a much smaller scale.
Difficulties in Africa’s supply chain
Because of its geographical isolation, Rwanda presents a unique logistical hurdle for any company shopping there. Mbonyumutwa states, “We have a very good scheme with the government,” which provides logistical assistance for the first five years. This involves coordinating with area cab firms to arrange low-cost travel to the Tanzanian ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Mbonyumutwa is sure that she can reduce the associated transportation costs as demand and production expand.
According to Subban of Baker McKenzie, Africa’s present energy and water supply infrastructure hurts the continent’s clothing supply chain. She thinks this would “have the added benefit of incentivizing foreign companies to set up manufacturing and production facilities on the continent” if it were boosted.
To protect their supply chains and stimulate local economies, African countries are implementing adjustments at the national level to solve these problems. Mbonyumutwa agrees that Rwandan exports to EU and US customers are subject to a zero percent import tax rate.
Mbonyumutwa plans to expand her business by building a new location in West Africa and a second location in Southern Africa and increasing the brand’s visibility abroad, beginning with the United Kingdom market, where she launched Asantii’s first retail shop in London last month.
We want to serve as an engine for the apparel, textile, and fashion sectors. And if we want to catalyze the whole sector, we must ensure we’re pulling everyone up with us,” adds Mbonyumutwa. If we’re successful, the market will see 100 more Asantiis in the following 20 years. This is fantastic because African brands can power and create employment at home while being sold on the high street and in department shops throughout the globe.
