MARVELOUS FLOTEA COMPANY LIMITED

The Company manufactures high quality textiles with a variety of designs.

Products include:·House textiles: napkins, table runners, place mats, hot pads, hand and tea towels.
·Beddings: pillow and pillowcases, throws, curtains, quilts and bed spreads.
·Personal: conference wallets, handbags, shopping bags, wall-hangings and file organizers. In addition the company also offer services:

The services which the company offers in-house design, including custom-made curtains, wall-hangings, and chair covers

The company’s creativity and innovation, based on unique Tanzanian themes and designs render its products both differentiated and attractive. Popular designs range from animal prints (big fives), cultural designs, geometric and floral designs. Recent changes in the designs are the creation of Kuba/Raffia cushions and totebags which were introduced to the market in 2006.

Main local customer segments are middle and upper income Tanzanians, tourists and diplomats. Distribution areas in Tanzania include Zanzibar, Arusha and Dar es Salaam. For international markets the products are sold to wholesalers and retailers in the USA (under AGOA trade protocol), Italy and Germany. This includes internet based companies, a few specializing in Marvelous’ goods (www.habanahaba.com).

The company also stimulates economic growth, job creation and enrichment and higher incomes amongst the poor. In addition, the company has a powerful demonstration effect among handicraft businesses in Tanzania. The executive Director of the company serves as a cluster leader on a high-profile committee (includes government, university and NGO participants) that is assessing how to enhance the business prospects for Tanzanian handicraft manufacturers and marketers.

Marvelous will continue participating to the sponsored and self financed International Trade Shows. The company will use opportunities, which are available in the exporting of the products abroad including AGOA and EBA -EU.

Marvelous will improve and update its website for displaying various fashionable designs and products produced. The website is intended to include an option where buyers can make orders and pay online.

The company will capitalize on the use of brochures, catalogues, business cards and leaflets and promotion of products through participating in interviews in the media

The company will continue doing direct marketing by displaying products at its workshop and rent a boutique in a prominent area in the Dar es Salaam City.

What determines the purchasing behavior is the design and innovations. Marvelous has positioned itself as the leading company in the industry, the company has recently gained national recognition for their quality production of batik, Kuba and embroidered cotton textiles. While the local business competitors are comprised mostly of clothing, Marvelous has had great international success with tabletop items, pillows and other decorative accessories.

High quality products based on local talents, innovation and creativity in better packaging eg tabletop items, pillows and other decorative accessories like Kuba and embroidered cotton textiles. The wide array of designs offered can accommodate many different tastes.

I completed Secondary School education in 1975. I participated in several short course/training workshops both in Tanzania and abroad. The training included SME management, entrepreneurship skills, product development, quality control, record keeping, book keeping, marketing concepts, and management information systems. In addition, I represented the company at trade fairs in the U.S., South Africa and Uganda. I am a well-known leader in the handicraft area in Dar es Salaam, serving as a cluster leader on a high-level committee (with government and university involvement) engaged in strengthening the business climate surrounding handicrafts in Tanzania. I have also been promoted by the U.S. Embassy and others as an AGOA success story.

I underwent training in designing uniqueness of product range, better packaging, quality, product development, business management, international relations, marketing, costing and pricing, consumer/buyer behaviour, online business and has enhanced relationship with customers.

At the family level, i managed to raise the standard of my family, build a modern house and educate my four daughters up to tertiary levels. Two of them are entrepreneurs and one is a human resource manager.

With loan investment the full time employment opportunities will be created. In addition, a growing and successful Marvelous will generate demand for raw materials such as locally made textiles and fabrics, such as Kuba from the Congo and batik. In addition to job creation, job enrichment via increased training will increase.

In the long term, benefits will trickle down to poor peasants who are the majority cotton producers which is the main input in textile products produced by the company.

The proposed investment will stimulate economic growth, job creation and enrichment and higher incomes amongst the poor. In addition, a growing and successful Marvelous Flotea will have a powerful demonstration effect among handicraft businesses in and around the Region.

With financial assistance the company will be able to build a strong production base and enable it meet its objective to fight poverty among the Tanzanian women through provision of skill, creativity, market exposure and instill business confidence while remaining a model in handcraft textile industry in Tanzania.