If you hear that there is a new mask machine being installed somewhere in Africa, it would be very much expected in the new normal caused by the COVID19 pandemic.  In fact, a lot of that is already happening.  Mask machines of varying capacity are being installed in the region to meet the new demand for face masks.  But when you hear that there are plans to instal a new meltblown line in Ethiopia in the next few months that certainly raises eyebrows.  That is because there are not many nonwovens raw material lines outside Africa’s key hubs of Egypt and South Africa.  Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria are of course key nonwovens markets and as a result the key players namely P&G, Kimberly Clark (the global number one and two makers of diapers) and in the case of Egypt, also Unicharm and Hayat Group (the global third and fifth largest manufacturers in diapers respectively). 

In line with the expected “follow the customer” strategy, the big nonwowen raw material suppliers have also set up shop in these key hubs.  Big nonwoven raw material suppliers like PF Nonwovens, have production plants in both these key markets. Fibertex and Spunchem both have production plants in South Africa.  Spunchem is the only one that manufactures meltblown, but its output is largely targeted at the automotive and industrial markets—not masks. Despite the market size, there is no raw materials supplier in Nigeria that manufactures locally.  BASF, a global giant in chemical innovations and a supplier to manufacturers of nonwovens, is present and very active in Nigeria and West Africa, but more for other categories like skincare and cosmetic formulations, in a very successful follow the customer strategy.    

But there is a new player in the market.  TKBD Medical Supplies is at very advanced stages of installing a meltblown line for the production of masks in Ethiopia.  The same company has just produced their first batch of face how difficult it was to find meltblown, the raw material for face masks, that Captain Elias Ketema, joint Managing Director of TKBD Medical Supplies, decided that he should manufacture meltblown locally as well.  Captain Elias is a captain and a pilot instructor with Ethiopian Airlines.  TKBD is owned by Captain Elias and his wife Tseday.  The husband and wife team have three successful businesses behind them.  They own a chain of premium coffee shops, 3 five star Italian restaurants and an agro-processing business in Ethiopia.  This is their first venture into nonwovens. They are in discussions with European and American meltblown manufacturers as well as potential investors in this well needed project.  In the third week of September, Captain Elias was in USA on business and took the opportunity to tour the factory of one of the American  meltblown machine suppliers.    

Their current businesses employ about 1 800 people.  So when lockdown happened the business was obviously heavily affected.   Captain Ketema said, “I realised that the three options being advocated to fight this invisible threat was face masks, hand sanitisers and social distancing.  There was a major shortage of masks of course.  My wife and I started looking into what we could do to help.  Then TKBD was born. And when we realised the acute shortage of the raw material, the nonwovens agenda kept growing and here we are, a few months away from installing East Africa’s first meltblown line.  And last week the fist face masks came off our own production line.  In fact we will be able to absorb between 5-10% of our own meltblown at full production.”     TKBD Medical Supplies has plans to export to the rest of the continent and further afield. He went to say, “” We are aware that the pandemic is a global threat, therefore we are ensuring that our manufacturing standards meet the key global market standards such as the EU, U.S. and of course local standards, which have been harmonised in line with EU and U.S. standards.”

Well Positioned for the Challenge
Ethiopia is a key African market.  With 110 million of Africa’s 1.3 billion population, growing at double digits GDP leaps and bounds for the better part of the last two decades, Ethiopia is a good market to launch a meltblown line.  Indications from  global players that have ventured into the nonwovens space in Ethiopia in 2017 such as Ontex, clearly the brave move has paid off.  Ontex is the first global manufacturer to open a diaper factory in Ethiopia.

This move by TKBD Medical Supplies will greatly help with Africa’s preparedness to fight COVID-19 and also the near-sourcing strategy that will ease the supply chain bottlenecks and shorten the lead times.  It will be interesting to watch how Africa’s nonwoven sector will react to the pandemic in the short and medium term.  Also interesting to note is that Wemy Industries, one of Africa’s oldest nonwoven manufacturers, who installed the first diaper production line, an Italian made line, in the early 80s, way ahead of P&G and Kimberly-Clark, who only came into the market about a decade later, have just commissioned their first face mask machine.  It is good to see that Africa’s home grown businesses are making strides to face the pandemic head-on.