It was Carmy Davis’s dream to one day revive her mother’s sewing business.
A former machinist for Triumph, Myrtle Davis had struck out on her own in 2006 with her own cut, make and trim (CMT) operation which employed struggling seamstresses from the Cape Flats.
But tragedy struck in 2012 when Myrtle died suddenly. Davis’s grieving father, Gustave, who worked as a porter at Tygerberg hospital, was forced to shut the business and lay off the seamstresses.
For years afterwards, Davis kept paying the rent on the premises — a tiny lock-up in an industrial park in Ravensmead, Cape Town — even while her father urged her to give it up.
“I couldn’t let go of the place,” she said.
Davis, who had started her career in the finance department at Woolworths before later becoming a buyer, was rising through the company ranks.
“I actually enjoyed my job,” said Davis, a single parent with two children. “It came with a lot of benefits so it was bittersweet to leave.”
But the thought of her mother’s sewing machines sitting idle in the Ravensmead lock-up and the idea that she could provide employment to women living in a part of the world where jobs and hope are in short supply, spurred her to take a chance.
A 30-minute meeting with a senior Woolworths manager in 2014 led her into the company’s enterprise development programme which nurtures young entrepreneurs.
“Without that mentorship, I would never have survived,” said Davis.
We’re the beggars of the clothing industry.
— Carmy Davis, owner of Davis Clothing
The result is Davis Clothing, the new CMT business that still bears her mother’s name. Setting up in another factory owned by a firm called Susie Products, Davis was able to hire 14 women and get her mother’s machines clacking away once more.
She had to start Davis Clothing under the roof of an existing supplier because she couldn’t afford equipment such as a fabric cutting machine.
In November 2019, Davis’s leap of faith paid off when Davis Clothing supplied its first babywear products to Woolworths.
She will never forget the thrill of packing the first shipment into boxes, she said.
“To see my name on a sticker was such a nice feeling.”
The CMT business is not for the faint-hearted. The industry relies on piecework and contracts to assist larger manufacturers when they are unable to cope with big orders.
“We’re the beggars of the clothing industry,” said Davis.
While Davis Clothing has now graduated from being a supplier to having its own direct orders for Woolworths, there were times when Davis was not sure she would be able to pay her seamstresses.
“My biggest fear is that I won’t be able to pay wages,” she said.
Yet the company has managed to survive not only through the stagnant pre-Covid economy but also the economic crash that has followed, turning over R3m a quarter.
Davis and her 14 seamstresses are about to move to a new premises of their own from where she plans to keep expanding the company.
“I want to better our economy and create more jobs,” she said.
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