PIB Industries’ Elizabeth Baloyi is sewing up business

When you walk into Elizabeth Baloyi’s store, she’s arched over a large industrial sewing machine changing settings and ensuring the design that it’s about to embroider is sorted, perfectly.

She’s a perfectionist, and everything at PIB Industries is just so.

Even the rows of school uniforms and safety clobber on sale are hung on rails that are all equally spaced and incredibly neat.

She runs a tight ship, said one of her staff.

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And Baloyi has been doing so as one half of the brother and sister pair that founded the business two decades ago in Mothibistad, just outside of Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

Since the passing of her sibling 10 years ago, she’s been flying solo.

PIB Industries retails uniforms of any kind, embroiders them and soon, Baloyi will be sublimating (printing) designs directly onto large rolls of fabric for clients too.

Baloyi’s operation is flanked by a butchery, a competing school uniform shop and on the other side of the centre, a college, small cell phone store and a few boarded-up shops.

PIB Industries store

PIB Industries is by far the largest retail tenant in the building, but it wasn’t always.

The company started out just selling school uniforms, but their vision was bigger and organic growth takes time.

“We now do services that have escalated the business to another level,” Baloyi said.

“The plan is to grow our corporate client base and to grow the business nationally. I want to specialise in the branding of personal protective equipment and build on the uniform business at the same time, whether it is for schools or mines, cleaning companies, anything,” she said.

So far, her strategy is working and many of the doors she has knocked on have given her business a shot.

“I have already managed to garner the business of a few industrial clients and mines in the area, but it’s only the beginning,” she said.

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Baloyi’s store is split into three.

The retail section is flanked by an open-plan area where seven massive industrial embroidery machines stitch non-stop along with the almost-installed sublimation machine.

A dry wall separates the balance of production from retail, with a small bank of sewing machines and seamstresses hard at work piecing together custom designs for clients.

The place is humming, and Baloyi works as a sales assistant on the floor, too, helping parents and pupils select uniforms.

It’s how she keeps herself grounded – by being at the front and back end of the operation.

Last year she put more on her plate when she received a scholarship for business training from a client.

She ended up attending class, running the store and the manufacturing. It was taxing, but Baloyi didn’t see it as a problem, rather as an opportunity.

“It was very exciting, and I acquired more skills to take my business forward. I am thankful and I can now take my business to another level. I have the additional knowledge and training to do so.”

This is why she keeps investing in expansion.

“The more services we can offer, the more clients we will be able to attract,” she said.

Serving the community

For Baloyi, PIB Industries is not just about business; it’s about community and creating opportunities.

Currently, the company employs 10 people in roles ranging from sewing to reception and machine operation.

“Now, I have six people who sew for me, two working in reception, and two I’m busy training to operate the machines,” she said.

“This supports families and in the Northern Cape, where unemployment is a big challenge, I feel that entrepreneurs can make small, but impactful contributions,” she added.

Baloyi is ambitious. “I see myself having a big workshop and 50 plus employees,” she said.

Beyond customising uniforms and corporate clobber she wants to scale up manufacturing capabilities, particularly in personal protective gear to supply mines across the Northern Cape and beyond.

It’s a lucrative market. “I want to manufacture overalls, jackets, everything, and supply all the mines,” she said.

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