Ethiopia’s one of the largest vertically integrated textile company, Almeda Textile which supplies apparel to Sweden’s fast fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz has concluded its expansion that took place over the past six months in Adwa city to increase its fabric production capacity by 100 per cent.

Focused on mainly replacing machinery with the latest products, the expansion is the first of three stages. The company imported Rieter brand C-70 carding machines, a New Draw Frame finisher machine and an Open End R-35 from Germany and Switzerland, as well as a Muratec winding machine from Japan. The new machinery saves energy and takes lesser time to power on and off. They are easy to manage and enhance their productivity, said Tekelemariam Tesfu, general manager of the factory.

Spinning, the production of thread, which used to yield 20,000kg per day, will now increase five-fold. This will enable the company to fulfill its own production requirements, and also look for export opportunities.

For the remaining production processes, resources and capacity will be better utilized. Because of the increase in the production at the spinning stage, the weaving and fabric making will also increase, making use of existing machinery for the latter two. Weaving will reach 32,000m of textile roll from the former output of 24,000m a day - an increase of 33pc; while the fabric making will be doubled to 7,000kg.