TCF: Vinaka, Fiji Sun, Business is booming
In May of this year, under threat of lockdown from COVID-19, the Textile Clothing and Footwear Council in Fiji was staring into the abyss of oblivion, its president Mike Towler said.
“A late night discussion with a brave and fearless journalist from the Fiji Sun got pen to paper, and a story was born about the plight of our Textile Clothing and Footwear Industry in shutdown,” he said.
“This story hit the business section of the
Fiji Sun the next day, and the rest is history.
“Our Government and Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama heard our cry for help.
“A few days later, redemption was delivered in the form of a plan to get the Fiji industry back up and running.
“Without that story, and the concern of the
Fiji Sun, we would not be where we are now. “Vinaka, Fiji Sun.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fiji Sun remained “very supportive” of the Textile Clothing and Footwear Council Industry of Fiji, Mr Towler said on the occasion of the newspaper’s 24th anniversary.
“We have enjoyed the opportunity to share our stories with readers of Fiji Sun, and successfully used their medium to get our message out to both the Fijian people at large, and Fijian institutions that needed to hear our stories and our cries, to get our country’s economy moving again,” he said.
The industry employs 7000 people, and supports the livelihoods of close to 20,000 individuals.
The textile, clothing and footwear industry of Fiji was not spared the economic downturn over the past 18 months, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly during the two periods that the sector was shut down, Mr Towler said.
“However, unlike the tourism industry that has suffered the most, a majority of our industry members have not been impacted in the same way, particularly those members that are mainly exporters to the Australian and New Zealand markets,” he said.
“Lockdowns in those two countries have had some impact on our members, but not forcing them into a full closure for lengthy periods of time.
“The current lockdown in New South Wales, Victoria and Auckland has had the most severe impact, but not a total closure.”
The first on the bandwagon
The Government’s vaccination campaign has had a very positive effect on the textile, clothing and footwear industry and its workforce,
with a vast majority of the sector’s workforce fully vaccinated, Mr Towler said.
“Our industry was the first on the No Jab No Job bandwagon,” he said.
“We have reaped the benefits of going early with that policy.
“For us, it is not an issue of human rights. “It’s an issue of human livelihoods and maintaining a safe working environment.”
Only a handful of staff have left the industry because of the hard stance that favoured the No Jab No Job policy, Mr Towler said.
“We were, and still are, very supportive of the Fiji Government’s policy in this regard,” he said.
“We were also very supportive of Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s policy initiative of keeping industry open under the COVID-SAFE plans. Without his leadership in this, we would not have an industry in Fiji today. Vinaka vaka levu, Prime Minister.”
Performance Flotation Developments (Fiji) Pte Ltd
Mr Towler said his company, Performance Flotation Developments (Fiji) Pte Ltd, has so far survived the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In fact, we have thrived,” he said.
“Our lifejacket manufacturing business has been booming with Australians and New Zealanders forced to take their holidays at home.
“With both being nautical nations, holidays revolve around water sports and being highly regulated activities.
“Lifejackets are mandatory items in those two countries.”
Demand has been so high that Performance Flotation Developments (Fiji) is struggling to keep up with demand, Mr Towler said.
“That’s because of capacity and raw material supply issues, especially sea freight, which has been a major difficulty for us to increase our capacity.
“Our staff have been working very long hours to keep up our production during this peak period of demand.
“Whilst they have been under a lot of pressure, our staff have enjoyed the bigger pay packets that the extra work has delivered to them.”
Very few businesses in Fiji have experienced such progress during the pandemic, Mr Towler said.
“We just hope and pray that other Fijians industries can get back to some sort of normality in the near future, now that the border opening is in place.”