It was an historical day for the South African Mohair industry at the official sod-turning ceremony for Mohair South Africa's new headquarters in Port Elizabeth yesterday.
The new state-of-the-art building of more than R8-million in Walmer will be home to various role-players in the industry from early next year.
General manager, Deon Saayman says the beautifully designed Karoo-inspired headquarters will house Mohair South Africa, the Mohair Trust as well as the Empowerment Trust...
"Since the early 1970's the Mohair Industry has been housed in PE's Industrial area close to the handling facilities. South Africa is the biggest role player in the world in terms of Mohair quality, production, processing and to fit with that whole brand and the image of the fibre we felt that it was time to move premises to house the headquarters of the Industry, to also include a retail area which will stock any Mohair product in the world that you would want to buy. It will also house a library and a crafting space for young designers and students, specifically in Mohair-and we want to be visible in PE" he said.
The chairperson of the Mohair Trust, David Herold says the new premises is important for the industry as a whole.
"We have been waiting for a couple of years to get to this point where we can actually start. We are very proud that we are going to put Mohair on the map in it's true position as world leaders of production, that we have a facility to reflect that" he said
