Support on board for Boat Building and Food and Beverage Manufacturing sectors

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES AND ASSET MANAGEMENT, ALDERMAN JAMES VOS.

Undoubtedly the COVID-19 pandemic requires manufacturers to adapt to the current environment and plan for resilience and recovery post-COVID-19.  The crisis has required local government to find innovative ways of supporting manufacturing industries across Cape Town and in doing so, helping to preserve jobs.

I am happy to announce that the City, in partnership with the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership (EDP) and industrial development specialists, B&M Analysts, is starting with a COVID-19 Risk Mitigation Programme specifically offering support to the Boat Building and Food and Beverage Manufacturing sectors.

The sessions for these sectors will be facilitated by B&M Analysts and commence today, 12 May 2020.

Phase 1 of the programme consists of a series of online sessions which involves collecting, synthesising and disseminating relevant information at scale while facilitating peer-to-peer learning on shared uncertainties and challenges in the sector. These sessions will be targeted at an executive level, including senior managers, and provide a forum to share best practices and enable industry peer learning and collaborative problem-solving.

The programme consists of four 1.5-hour online sessions over the next two weeks, each covering one of the following key themes:

• Health and Safety
• Cash Flow Management
• Operations
• Supply Chain Management

Based on the success of Phase 1, a second phase of the programme may be rolled out, and that would involve establishing smaller working groups. While still focusing on the same key themes, these working groups would allow a greater depth of engagement and peer learning on firms’ individual risk mitigation and recovery programmes, facilitated by the use of tangible, actionable tools where appropriate. This is not just a series of webinars but a focused, output-oriented programme which aims to accelerate traction on key initiatives through shared learning.

B&M Analysts has also been actively supporting the clothing and textile, automotive, chemicals and furniture manufacturing sectors in South Africa in response to the COVID-19 crisis with great success. These initiatives have engaged over 240 manufacturers collectively employing over 66 000 South Africans, and including multinationals like Toyota South Africa Motors, renowned locally owned firms like K-Way Manufacturers, a host of SMMEs, as well as government and other industry stakeholders where appropriate. This has generated an uptake of transferable learnings and resources to mitigate risks and guide recovery implementation.

The City is supporting the local clothing and textile manufacturing sector in partnership with B&M Analysts through the Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster (CCTC). The CCTC has been offering online sessions facilitated by B&M Analysts in support of local manufacturers in the sector since mid-March. Up to 80 individual stakeholders from across the industry participated in this, representing more than 50% of total employment within the clothing and textile manufacturing industry locally. Feedback on the CCTC support programme, which is now into its second phase, has been extremely positive and the City aims to replicate that success with the Boat Building and Food and Beverage sectors.

For any attendance relating to these webinar sessions, please contact Yolonda.Murray@bmanalysts.com