Introduction By The Managing Member - Puma

INTRODUCTION BY THE MANAGING MEMBER
Vimal Clothing Enterprises cc (hereafter, ‘Vimal’) is a privately owned Durban-based clothing manufacturing
company with a 26 year history. With more than R35 million in annual revenues, we are no longer classified
as a SMME, or ‘Small, Medium or Micro Enterprise’, which brings with it both excitement and challenges.
While extending beyond this economic milestone marks a significant and exciting development in our company,
it also heralds a need for Vimal to ensure that the governance and management of the company moves
from our historical ‘family business approach’, to a more structured ‘corporate approach’. This Sustainability
Report is therefore a demonstration of our efforts to streamline our data management and reporting to
key stakeholders.
Since 1981, our primary manufacturing output has always been apparel, although we
did spend a few years experimenting with furniture making and other initiatives. At
present, our business consists of four business units: Vimal Clothing; Yash Clothing;
Functional Sportswear and Niam Embroidery. Through the acquisition and development
of these four equally important units, we have been able to diversify our products
and services portfolio while identifying and concentrating on products that best
suit our specific core competencies. Each of the business units is unique in its specific
focus, but they ultimately work harmoniously with each other to share in making Vimal
a successful manufacturer of sporting apparel.
As a South African supplier of Puma AG, a world class sports brand, Vimal was invited
to participate in a development programme supported by the German Development
Agency (GTZ) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) that taught us how to produce
a Sustainability Report such as this one.
Prior to the first workshop held in Cape Town in July of 2007, we knew nothing about
Sustainability Reporting and very little about ‘Corporate Responsibility’. We knew
that our success over the past 26 years has been based on our ability to focus on
being ‘a good company’, but we never had occasion to understand that our customer
and employee-centric approaches to surviving in a highly competitive market was of
interest to people other than ourselves. The reporting process has therefore helped
us understand how well we have been doing, while allowing us a unique opportunity to consider whether the
business as a whole, or specific components within it, could be improved. Specifically, our attention has been
drawn to issues such as environmental performance and improved employee engagement.
However, it should be remembered that Vimal is not a large publicly listed company with endless supplies of
cash or, more importantly, time.
I, as the Managing Member, am but one man, and while I have a small team of dedicated management support
staff, a task such as developing this Report is a monumental challenge when our time is already exhausted on
the day-to-day activities involved in running our business. Thus we need to stress that this is our ‘first effort’ in
producing a Sustainability Report, and while we may not have included all of the information stakeholders might
require, we trust that we have made the best effort possible in our particular circumstances.
Thankfully, the process of reporting was facilitated by Trialogue Assurance Services, a Johannesburg-based
consultancy that offers similar services to companies that tend to be a lot larger than Vimal, with support from
the GTZ, the GRI and Puma.
The primary goal of this Report is to offer our many stakeholders an opportunity to better understand who we
are as a company, as a team of individuals and as a proudly South African manufacturer of clothing. The following
pages provide a summary of our ‘Most Material Issues’, including a discussion of how we believe we
have been doing thus far and how we hope to improve in the future.
It is important to note that the reporting period under question is limited to the 2007 Calendar Year (CY 2007),
although we have attempted to include data for 3 years where it has been relatively easy to assemble. Where
possible, trend analyses have been conducted for all available data on a month-by month basis.
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