KZN CTC

Description about KZN CTC

The KwaZulu-Natal Clothing and Textile Cluster is a not-for-profit public/private sector partnership of clothing, textile, footwear and retail firms in KZN. Established in August 2005, the KZN CTC aims to boost the competitiveness of the local industry to ensure that it can compete in the global market.

As economies open up to international competition, it is critical that firms undertake joint interventions and pool their resources to meet the intensive competitiveness challenges that emerge. Clustering is therefore a progression from operating in isolation to recognising that there are certain support activities that can be better performed in conjunction with firms confronting similar challenges. The benefits of clustering include:

*Generates critical mass of resources
*Shared learning
*Supports the rapid diffusion of ideas
*There is collective action and risk sharing
*Reduced costs
*Enhanced ability to compete on a global platform

The KZN CTC is governed by a Executive committee which comprises of senior executives of KZN CTC member firms including a retailer, along with government officials, the CTFL Seta and two senior facilitators from B&M Analysts.The key to the success of the KZN CTC is that it operates according to a flexible business plan which is formulated and controlled by the industry. Currently, the KZN CTC has three programmes which fall into the business plan. These are World Class Manufacturing, Value Chain Alignment and Human Resources Development. The KZN CTC currently has core members who are fee paying members and receive the full benefits of cluster programmes as detailed above. The cluster also has over 300 associated members from manufacturers, government and supporting institutions who receive industry related information, research findings and newsletters. The cluster therefore plays a key role in the development of the industry as a whole.