New owners for dormant tannery

Published: 20 August, 2007

A consortium, including Armando and Marcello Meneguzzo of AM42 Tannery in South Africa, has bought the dormant Omaheke Tannery Co in Witvlei, east of Windhoek, for an undisclosed sum. Omaheke were set up as a wet-blue plant with financing from the Government Institutions Pension Fund (GIPF) in 2003, as part of a portfolio of investments designed to increase employment. The rationale for the location of the tannery was the nearby Witvlei abattoir.

'The tannery has been completely dormant for three years', said Sanlam's Bryan Finlay, who acts as development capital portfolio manager for the GIPF. 'The original plan called for a throughput of 200-300 hides a day but I think the previous owners were achieving around 80 hides a day at best, which was probably due to non-performance by the abattoir.'

The abattoir is now run by Sidney Martin and former Namibian athlete Frankie Fredericks, with European partners, 'on a lease-to-buy arrangement', Finlay said. Martin and Fredericks are partners with the Menguzzos in Fidalgo Investments (Pty) Ltd, who now own the assets of Omaheke Tannery and are negotiating to buy the land and buildings from the Agricultural Bank of Namibia.

Finlay said the abattoir had approval to export meat to the EU, 'which the GIPF hopes will ensure at least a portion of the hides the tannery needs'. At least one other offer was made for some of Omaheke's equipment previously, but Finlay said the GIPF had wanted to sell the business as a going concern to achieve the original objective of job creation.

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