Scaling the heights in Uganda’s fashion industry

Much as local fashion designers appear to be popular on the social scene, the growth of the fashion industry is still below par. However, there are signs that the sector is on a steady path to growth.

Majority of Ugandans are not into the habit of buying locally made clothes, and as such the fashion market is indeed very small. In fact for fashion designers like Sylvia Owori it is persistence and passion that has kept them in the trade.

Owori acknowledges that the fashion industry started on a faulty path, whereby designers only idealised for the up-market consumers. Therefore, even where there would be a market for designers, it looks as though it is almost nonexistent.

The lack of a market aside, Owori says the biggest challenge to the industry is the high cost of raw materials (fabric) and other accessories, which make competition hard with the cheaply imported products.

She says would be entrepreneurs have no confidence in the trade, as the industry has not given them that impression; that one can actually reap from it. Owori admits that when she started her fashion trade, she never had a business plan.

However she says “I have now learnt that before you start any business, you need a proper business plan and cash flow projection for about five years and a balance sheet.”

The 2008 recession also cut into the business’s growth. “This year has not been as good as the past. Spending patterns have changed, and we have seen a big difference in the cash flow,” she says.

Whereas she is regarded as the best designers in Kampala, Owori still imports finished products from the western markets, which she sells in her shops.
Though the industry is still limping, Owori has had her share of the pie. Having started with only five employees six years ago, her business has expanded to have 45 employees.

Owori apparently boasts of about 5,000 loyal customers who have boosted her sales from just 1,000 six years ago to about 5,000 every month.
Apart from fashion designing Owori, has also ventured in the Magazine world, under the African Woman flagship. The magazine has been used as a platform to cement her trade in the fashion industry.

Though the magazine is a separate entity from the designing house, it has given her an edge over her competitors. The magazine generates its own revenues but gives, the fashion business a platform in terms of promotion, publicity and advertising.
Her fashion business has also expanded to Nairobi, which as she says “Nairobi’s growth is much faster and people have more money to spend compared to Ugandans.”
Owori is guarded about her actual earning, though as analysts say, she is the biggest name and probably the biggest earner in the industry.

Her biggest challenge is to bring on board the middle class earners who perhaps have phobia for locally designed clothes. She says, there is a plan -“next plan’ – which as she says will aim at making stylish clothes but less expensive to attract the middle class.

Next plan – will also involve getting more knowledge about the business and expansion, because the previous years have been spent on learning about the business trade.

She says “I see myself opening up one big shop, the size of Nakumat where all my clients will be buying from.” She says for the industry to move to desired levels, there must be enough products to supply both the local and international market.
She also says the industry needs to enlist the support of the government, which needs to limit the number of second hand products coming into the country.
According to Owori, these products come in cheaply, which suffocates the capacity of local production.

From just a dismal investment, Owori’s business has grown to influence fashion trends. She has attended several high level fashion displays and exhibitions including the hugely rated New York Fashion Week.

Her business sells handbags, shoes, ladies clothes and a few men’s clothes and jewellery. Of these she says jewellery brings in the most cash.