Beconnected Labeling and Printing, the Belgian multinational that opened shop in Ethiopia three years ago, is teaming up with suPPPort ltd, to help build a strategy to establish its brand within the nation of Ethiopia. This is the first partnership for suPPPort ltd within the African continent, let alone in Ethiopia, as the latter is on the verge of becoming a manufacturing hub within the region and a prime destination for foreign investment.
Until now, the Hong Kong-based consultancy has primarily based most of its projects in Asian nations such as Vietnam, Myanmar and China. This time, the multinational suPPPort ltd is forging this partnership with the Ethiopian branch of Beconnected, to help build a new strategy for the Belgian Multinational to capture and utilize its rapid growth within Ethiopia.
“For the past decade, we have worked on projects mainly in Asia and it’s a very humbling feeling to be able to successfully implement these sustainability projects and to witness the long-term outcome of their successful impact,” said Ozan Oezdemir, the managing director of suPPPort ltd in Ethiopia, said. “We try to make the most use of our network and approach retailers, brands and manufacturers to implement their sustainability projects and we try getting aid for them from development partners, like the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany).”
suPPPort ltd is known for assisting with designing, managing and at times, implementing projects in areas of textile/garment, footwear and the leather product industries within developing countries.
For Ozan, the project will help Beconnected establish training and sustainable educational structures, implement internationally recognized environmental and social standards, and in the process, help create job opportunities for local Ethiopians. This development partnership with Beconnected Industrial (a company of the Belgian ERVE Group) is part of the develoPPP.de program that the Deutsche Investitions- und EntwicklungsgesellschaftmbH (DEG) implements on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Beconnected envisions being at the forefront of social and ecological compliance and sustainable development and Ozan believes that suPPPort ltd can help realize these visions through the implementation of their project in Ethiopia. In fact, Beconnected’s mission is to ensure growth for its customers, partners and its people, and it is a target that they wholeheartedly believe in achieving through their expansion in Ethiopia.
The Belgian company, located inside a 5500m2 factory with state of the art advanced machinery in Dukem, has been producing labels for upscale textile products sold in boutique stores all around the globe.
Its Ethiopian hub is one of its fastest growing operations in the world, producing up to 40,000 prints daily and half a million heat transfers labels every day and its aim of becoming the number one state-of-the-art factory, in tandem with its strong emphasis on internationally recognized environmental and social standards as one seen will set an ideal example for the manufacturing industry of Ethiopia, according to suPPPort ltd.
