Eastern Cape Business 2017 edition

OVERVIEW
Manufacturing
From eye drops to dog food, the Eastern Cape has diverse manufacturing opportunities.
SECTOR INSIGHT
The Fagerhult Group from
Sweden is a new investor.
• BBF Safety Group is expanding
production of
shoes.
• Aspen’s PE plant makes
25-million eye drops
annually.
Diversification has been the name of the manufacturing game
in the Eastern Cape in recent years. The massive role played
by the automotive industry and food and beverages as part
of agri-processing (both covered in separate overviews) has
not diminished, but with attractive incentives on offer in both of the
province’s industrial development zones, the range of manufacturing
capabilities is growing.
Coega IDZ is home to Agni Steels SA and DCD Wind Towers and
Electrawinds. East London’s IDZ has another company in the renewable
energy sector, ILB Helios, who make solar panels.
The provincial government is keen to support diversification, anxious
that with the automotive sector supplying 30% of manufacturing employment
and 32% of manufacturing gross value-added, the province’s
economy might be vulnerable to fluctuations in demand for vehicles.
The strategy is targeting sectors where the province already has a
competitive advantage (as with wool and mohair), is labour intensive,
will have a broad impact and has low barriers for SMME entry. Sectors
targeted include: agri-processing and food; timber; tourism; construction;
chemicals; energy and mariculture.
One of South Africa’s most successful manufacturers is Port
Elizabeth-based Aspen. The judges of the 2016 All Africa Business
Leaders Awards agreed with this
assessment when they named
Aspen Group Chief Executive
Stephen Saad as Entrepreneur
of the Year. The company has 60
businesses in 50 countries and the
Port Elizabeth and East London
factories play an important role
in producing excellent products
in bulk. The Port Elizabeth site
makes more than 12-billion oral
solid dosage forms every year, in
addition to more than 25-million
units of Murine and Clear Eye eye
drops being made for export to
the US. The PE complex has four
components, covering oral solid,
liquid, steriles and niche high potency
pharmaceutical products.
Bodene, a subsidiary of
Fresenius Kabi, makes intravenous
medicine in Port Elizabeth.
East London hosts Johnson &
Johnson’s finance, operations
and research and development
divisions.
EASTERN CAPE BUSINESS 2017
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