Milestones
The cotton procurement season of 2000/2001 marked a great debut for what would later become MSK Solutions Ltd, a company limited by shares registered in Tanzania.
In that particular season, we started to source raw cotton from farmers and sell to ginners. From that point, we continued to operate as commissioning agents, using funds from major players and source raw cotton from the fields and supply to major companies. At that time we operated the business as a registered enterprise but not a limited company. Clinging under the shoulders of giants, we managed to learn the inner secrets of the business – the systems, the value chain and the opportunities available. Early January 2006 saw the inception of a limited company, MSK Solutions Limited, registered under cap. 212 of the laws of Tanzania. Immediately after incorporation, we started to operate a single registered office in Dar es salaam, Tanzania; but later in 2007, we opened a branch office in Mwanza city – which covers the western cotton growing areas of Mwanza, Shinyanga, Mara, Kigoma, Kagera and Tabora.
In 2007, we acquired membership to the Tanzania Cotton Association and we are active ever since. In the same year, we leased and operated a ginning factory in the Mara region. We produced around 4000 bales (about 880,000kgs) of cotton lint and sold cotton seeds about 1,630,588 kgs. In 2008, we bought our own ginning facility and rented another – i.e. we operated two factories in different catchment areas. We bought 20 trucks (3 semi trailers, 3 pulling trucks and 14 single pieces), 7 tractors and 6 four wheel drives (vehicles for field operations); thus positioned ourselves amongst the strongest competitors. We managed to produce about 8000 (about double production of 2007) cotton lint bales.
We also started importing and supplying jute bags to the cooperative societies for cashew nuts packaging in the southern and coastal regions of Tanzania and we have opened and are operating our new branch office there too. We are well positioned to procurement and selling/exporting raw cashew nuts to any place of the world. We are currently crushing part of our cotton seeds to obtain edible cooking oil, cotton cakes (for farm animals) and husks, all being highly demanded products. We became registered active members of the Confederation of Tanzanian Industries (CTI) and the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (TCCIA).
We are among the government recognized local investors by the Tanzania Investment center (TIC). In 2009, we have become registered developers and operators of a garment manufacturing factory to be developed and operated in the Benjamin William Mkapa Special Economic Zone in Mabibo, Dar es salaam, which has been developed by the Tanzanian government agency, the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA). This project which is expected to be launched in April, 2009 is a USD 20,000,000 project and will move the company to a whole new level. The garment manufacturing business will be a fourth division, after the Trading, Logistics and Agro processing divisions, and would mark the first step of the company’s entry in the textile industry. The division is registered as MSK Apparels Ltd and would be owned and operated under JVC basis with external investors. The plan is to invest in garment manufacturing and thereafter backward integration into knitting, dyeing and spinning; with possibilities for expanding into weaving in the future.