Harare — A CONSORTIUM of businessmen, led by former banker Sween Mushonga, has launched a US$500 000 manufacturing plant for sanitary products, in what amounts to a major vote of confidence by local investors in the country's economic recovery.

The Greenfield project has already created 20 new jobs in an economy battling unemployment, estimated at 80 percent by independent economists, as well as a haemorrhage on the fiscus caused by massive company closures over the past decade.

The plant is being held through Phoenix Health Care and has already started manufacturing sanitary pads, which are by now available in top retail outlets across the capital and in Chitungwiza, Mushonga told The Financial Gazette this week.

Distribution is expected to spread across the country soon.

The product was officially launched at the Arundel Spar in the capital over the weekend, marking what Mushonga said was a major onslaught on a market currently dominated by imports mainly from South Africa and China.

Phoenix Health Care is part of a regional group, Phoenix Health International, which is also expected to start operations in Malawi and open distribution centres in Zambia and other southern African countries.

The sanitary pads have been branded Elsie, a brand Mushonga said was meant to cater for the needs of all discerning women in the country. It currently has two products packages under the Elsie Super and Elsie Super Plus ranges for guaranteed comfort and protection.

"Still to come is the Elsie Ultra Thin range for the upper end of the market," said Mushonga.

They are also expecting to launch other new products such as diapers, for both babies and adults, and tampons.

Mushonga, who is also a football administrator with shares in a Premier Soccer League club, said Elsie was inspired by "a gaping need for women's sanitary ware in Zimbabwe".

"Now that the product is locally manufactured, Phoenix Health International has pledged to all the women in Zimbabwe that we will ensure that supply will be as constant as the need.

"The product development team is also geared to constantly improve the product to ensure it fits the needs of every woman," said Mushonga.

He described Elsie as "a gel-based napkin which has a high rate of absorption that ensures that one stays dry and confident".

"The Elsie pad range also has wings which ensure that the pad snugly fits and is held tight.

"Further enhancing the effectiveness of Elsie is the alignment of the cell membranes on the pad which are aligned in one direction ensuring that there are no leakages," he said.