03 Mar 2019

Mr Relentse Mosarwana has proved to be a businessman of note, following his takeover of a company that was facing a bleak future.

The 34 year-old, who quit his job as a prosecutor at the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to run an entiry that started in 2004 under ownership of a Sri Lankan named Mr Jayatissa Gedara.

He said he took over the company in 2013, when it was relatively unknown and strived to make Fibre Land a household name.

Mr Moswarana said he was forced to quit his job of 12 years since the company was facing financial difficulties,.

The company manufactures fibre glass products, different types of bath tubs, slides and other fibre glass products such as the pool in Goo Moremi Gorge.

It also repairs water tanks, galvanized steel and fibre tanks.

“We are a major player in terms of fibre glass in Botswana,” he said.

Mr Moswarana explained that the said fibre glass intrigued him since Botswana was a developing country that needed products with a longer life span such as fibre glass compared to ceramic and plastic.

He said the blue street lights in Gaborone’s Western Bypass were made of fibre glass, so they were easily repairable in case of being knocked down, which saved more money compared to bringing in the new ones.

Mr Mosarwana said the boom gates in railway lines were made up of fibre glass and they were knocked down every day and they were now repairing 10 of them.

Fibre glass was also used to refurbish bath tabs at Tlotlo hotel, BNPC and Mathiba Junior School Secondary in Kanye.

The company, which employed 21 people, was sponsored by CEDA in 2016 to the tune of P1.5 million.

However, orders were piling up due to high demand and low supply.

It was on that note that the company partnered with the UB Business clinic to refine its processes thereby enhancing productivity.

Mr Mosarwana said they wanted to expand this year and introduce shifts so that they could meet their orders.

The company asked CEDA to help it in its expansion saying it needed to produce more products and hire more people.

Mr Mosarwana said his business produced supply on order.

“Just this week, we have more than 200 orders of Thandi bath tub but they only have 20 moulds. Moulds are used to produce bath tubs hence with expansion, they want to have 50 more moulds to meet their demand,” he said.

He said they were buying their raw materials in South Africa but the country was also importing those materials, therefore, it was expensive since they did their costing based on that.

One of the reasons they approached UB business clinic was that they wanted to know the weight and strength of the bath tub when moulding it.

The copmany also wanted to directly source its raw materials so that it could reduce cost by 30 per cent.

He thanked the coordinator of UB business clinic, Ms Onneetse Ndadi, for welcoming them.

Fibre Land is in the process of being approved by BOBS.

Its major achievement to date was scooping position one in manufacturing in 2017 at the Botswana Consumer fair while in 2018 it got position three in the same category. ENDS