TEX RAY LOSING E375M DUE TO AGOA LOSS

                                                                 

NKONYENI – The country’s loss of AGOA benefits had a huge impact on Tex Ray Group of Companies as it stands to lose over E375 million annually.

This was revealed by Tex Ray Group of Companies Chairman Ray Lin during an exclusive interview with this publication on Friday at Nkonyeni Residential Golf Estate.
Given this situation, the group of companies, which is one of the biggest foreign investors in Swaziland, would never give up in investing in the country, said Lin.

Lin further assured the authorities and citizens of the country that the company would never leave Swaziland for another country and that they want to make Swaziland the number one textile supplier in the African continent.
Currently, they are operating in six countries and these include Swaziland, Vietnam, Taiwan, China, Mexico and Cambodia.

The factories under the company in the country currently export over one million pieces of garments to South African markets per month and ship over 450 tonnes of fabric, which they make at TQM factory, to industries in South Africa.
He said they were still in negotiations with some potential customers in South Africa and they believe that after the talks, they would increase the export, which would see more people being hired to meet the demand.
“I promised the King and his government that as Tex Ray Group of Companies, we will continue to invest in the country and employ more Swazis. In that process we will also make the country a textile centre by making it the number one supplier of textile products in Africa,” said Lin.

AGOA offers preferential access to the United States market for goods from about 40 Sub-Saharan nations that meet the required political and economical standards.
Swaziland was removed from benefitting from the Act by the US President, Barrack Obama in June 2014 but the country stopped benefitting from it in December 31, 2014.

It is worth mentioning that AGOA contributed immensely in fighting unemployment in the country as over 17 000 people were employed in the textile firms across the country. 
Tex Ray was the first textile company to be affected by the loss of AGOA benefits by the country as it was forced to close down its factory, their biggest company in the country.
The factory was closed in October last year.

On March 17, 2015 the Tex Ray Group of Companies implemented lay-offs that affected all the about 1 200 workers at Union Industrial Washing, a factory under the group of companies. 

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