Juapong, June 25, GNA - Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, has tasked the Interim Management Committee of the Volta Star Textiles Company at Juapong, in the North-Tongu District, to provide his office with a blueprint that could quickly push the company up to the top line.

He described the company, a wholly State concern, as "a sleeping giant that must be woken up" to provide jobs for the people. Mr Amonowode was interacting with some management staff after an hour-and-a half tour of the factory, previously known as 'Juapong Textiles.'

The company was declared unprofitable and liquidated by its foreign owners, but the government took over in a buyout deal. The Minister said he would want to see an updated copy of the company's operational needs within weeks, to enable him to begin contacts with the relevant Ministries towards revamping the company. Mr Evans Agyagbo, the Acting Technical Director, who led the team that took the Minister round, said the company was producing at below 20 per cent capacity in spite of market indications that its main product, grey baft, was in high demand.

He said the company was on a GHC 3 million Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) lifeline and needed a huge injection of capital to cater for its chemical and engineering needs. Mr Agyagbo said the company was subsisting on chemicals left by the former owners and had no engineering parts to rehabilitate large components of the processing plants so as to raise the economy of scales.

He explained that a bulk of the about 300 workforce, who were former employees of the defunct Juapong Textiles, agreed to come along with the new managers on mutual non-committal terms to revamp and sustain the company.

He said the company had been working hard to rationalize labour relations at the factory to conform to the Labour laws of the nation. Mr Agyagbo said the company had a strategic development plan that could turn the factory around.

Mr Seth Adoboe, Spinning Manager, rejected the idea that the factory was a write-off, suggesting that the past lopsided relationship for it to produce grey baft for its principal owners, GTP, producers of premium African prints at low-cost, resulted in its demise. He said a production audit after the exit of the former owners in 2004, indicated that the factory was viable, necessitating the government to buy and put it back into some kind of production in November 2007.

Mr Adoboe said the factory currently runs no shift and is on an eight hour normal work schedule because of low production. With the Minister on the tour were Lt Colonel Cyril Necku, his deputy, Mr Charles Hodogbey and Alhaji Bubey Dzinadu, Member of Parliament (MP) and District Chief Executive respectively for North-Tongu.