After nearly six years of operations in Ethiopia, Else Addis Industrial PLC, a Turkish textile company has terminated its operations. Officials confirmed that the factory has been closed in relations with unpaid electric power supply bills that were long-overdue.
Sileshi Lema, director general of the Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI), a state parastatal that oversees the activities of the textile and garment factories in the country told The Reporter that he became aware of the issue lately. He also said that the incident that led to the closure of the factory is more related to a long-overdue unpaid electric power bills, which eventually resulted in a power cut from the Ethiopian Electric Utility. Sileshi said that the overdue has long been sustained where Else failed in a number of occasions to settle the bills. Fassil Taddesse, president of the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Industries Association also said that he has been aware of the closure but declined to give further explanations saying there have not been any formal procedures exercised.
The Reporter also learnt from sources that the company has terminated operations a week ago and laid-off some 1,000 employees. It owes the state run Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) a couple of hundred million birr and needed to settle some millions for land lease. Back in 2011, the company announced investing USD 140 million of which 63 percent is a loan from the DBE extended.
The textile factory, which has been manufacturing a cotton ginnery with an area of 60,000sq.m, was built on a 120,000sq.m indoor area at a 200,000sq.m land size in Adama, some 85km southeast of the Addis Ababa. According to the information posted on the company’s website, the construction of the facility began in 2009 commencing production in 2011.
The company was involved in the export sector where it exported textile products to the United States, Russia, Ukraine and Far East countries since 2011. It was also in the reports that Else was contemplating to grow cotton in a 30,000 hectare area in the Omo zonal administration of the Southern Regional State. The attempts made by The Reporter to include comments from the company bare no results.
Similarly, other Turkish textile factories are facing troubles in their operations in the country. Saygin Dima Textile SC is on public notice for sale. This week, a second round of bid has been announced for the sale of the factory with a capital of some 600 million birr. Ayka Addis Textile and Investment Group is the other giant factory from Turkey on the verge of collapse. At some point, Ayka has been attributed to share 60 percent of the entire textile export of the country.
After nearly six years of operations in Ethiopia, Else Addis Industrial PLC, a Turkish textile company has terminated its operations. Officials confirmed that the factory has been closed in relations with unpaid electric power supply bills that were long-overdue.