Zimplow Holdings Limited is in discussions with the Angolan government to start assembling some of its brands in the southern African nation, businessdigest can reveal.
Several companies have been moving their operations to neighbouring nations to reduce the cost of production.
This comes as companies have been closing or entering corporate rescue owing to a rise in the cost of doing business.
Now, Zimplow has revealed similar plans.
Zimplow operates several subsidiaries under its agricultural equipment, mining and infrastructure, logistic and automative, and property holding segments.
These are Scanlink (Pvt) Ltd and TrenTyre Zimbabwe (TrenTyre), which are both under its logistic and automotive division, as well as Manica Road Investment and Barzem under its property holdings.
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For its mining and infrastructure units, Zimplow has Tractive Power Solutions, Powermec, and CT Bolts, while under agricultural equipment, the group has Farmec, Valmec, and Mealie Brand.
“I think that the overall export market will be very close to 2023’s level. If we achieve 2023’s levels, I will be exceptionally happy. We did circa U$1,9 million into the diaspora, outside of Zimbabwe, in 2023. Yes, we are looking into new markets; remember we have gone to Angola,” Zimplow chief executive officer Willem Swan told businessdigest in an interview.
“Some 10 years ago, we did exceptionally well in that Angolan market. And it has become a lot more stable in Angola. We have been talking to their Ministry of Agriculture, and it looks like we are going to be assembling in Angola. We are hoping to do that by September or October.”
The planned move comes after the firm posted a loss of US$2,16 million in its annual financial period ended December 31, 2024.
Part of the loss was owing to production costs, with Zimplow announcing a review of the production costs of the key products manufactured in the Mealie Brand factory.
The increased costs saw Zimplow embark on a cost containment drive to preserve cash flows, which included a group-wide staff rationalisation exercise, closure of non-performing branches, and branch consolidation at TrenTyre.
Swan said while the group expects export orders to increase in the second half of 2025, the influx of cheaper Indian and Chinese products into Zambia is expected to temper export volumes to below 2023 levels.
“Zambia felt the same pain as we did in the 2023/24 drought, and the numbers dropped off tremendously,” he said.
“But, on further investigation, we also found that they do not manufacture the ploughs there; we are the only ones, but they also bring them in out of India. We have got some Indian trade, and the pricing is incredibly sharp.”
He said even though the quality was lower, just making any savings was worth it.
“We have taken steps to reduce our costs. We are actually working at night because it is that US$0,06 a kilowatt hour, versus US$0,23 during the day, peak times, which makes a very big difference in our factories,” Swan said.
Zimplow recorded a 10% increase in revenue to US$12,07 million in the first five months of the year from reorganising its business model.