Take advantage of gap in uniforms production

SCHOOL uniform prices are now horrific, with parents having to spend well over $3 000 to equip a secondary school pupil with a basic kit and significantly more for a boarding school pupil.

Children are growing, so a uniform set might only last a year before being replaced by a larger size.

There are significant savings for those who shop in the informal sector, where many items of clothing are run up by dressmakers on sewing machines in their back bedroom.

This has been a cheaper option for some years, but the gap is now growing even when all prices are for electronic transfers.

Some of the savings may well be on different quality materials.

Generally, Zimbabwean factory-made uniforms by established manufacturers are tough and durable and able to cope with hard wear and frequent washing.

Often the informal sector will use different fabrics that may, or may not, give the same value.

Parents need to examine quality to decide if they are making real savings.

The Government stepped in at the end of last year to make it clear that parents could shop around and seek savings where they could.

Schools were banned from insisting on a single supplier or on parents buying from the school.

This opened doors to other suppliers and allowed competition, both between established suppliers and between the formal and informal sectors.

There was a time when almost all fabrics for school uniforms in Zimbabwe were made in Zimbabwe, to be precise at David Whitehead. This removed some of the guesswork now required.

Identical fabrics that were supplied to the clothing factories were also available, by the metre, in fabric shops along with the identical thread, zips and buttons. This meant that homemade uniforms, and these were common especially for girls, were basically identical to shop-bought uniforms but without factory labour charges.

Dressmakers also made their share and could usually ensure a better fit as well as a modest reduction in price.

Boys’ uniforms were more often factory bought, but the huge economies of scale and some competition kept margins tight. Basically there were khaki boys’ uniforms or grey boy’s uniforms and only ties, blazers and belts varied in colour.

The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) is examining uniform prices and we hope this will be thorough, looking at costing models and checking on the manufacturers’ prices and comparing these to other countries.

While retailers tend to get the blame for prices, competition can be intense in the retail sector, but when it comes to manufacturing there might be only two or three suppliers and after the damage of the hyperinflation and multi currency eras there might be only one.

A temptation for arrangements or collusion at that level cannot be ruled out.

The damage to primary industry by our economic mistakes, such as to the textile industry, can be severe.

If all uniforms were made from Zimbabwean cotton woven in Zimbabwean factories, we could well see some significant savings and again it might require CCZ to be more active in pressing for the resurrection of more Zimbabwean industries.

Our textile industry started off with basic work and school clothes and the fancier stuff was built on that bedrock. It could easily be rebuilt the same way.

There are other savings. Parents with multiple children of the same sex can frequently recycle uniforms to the younger child, making significant savings, but not all parents have that option.

Many schools have formal second-hand shops, especially for higher priced items such as blazers, and informal arrangements between parents are common. These need to be pursued by more parents.

Other school requirements desperately need alternatives.

A steel trunk now reportedly costs $2 000 and considering what they cost in the US dollar era, that seems remarkably steep and difficult to justify.

Apparently, some metalworkers in the informal sector are already trying their hand at trunks, but there are other options that could be pursued.