1. Product Description: Socks are too obvious to describe. They are made by knitting cotton, wool, silk or man-made yarns or fibers. Socks are one of the essential clothing items in developed societies. They are like under wears, shirts, trousers or skirts.
2. Market Potentials: The use of socks is related with the use of shoes. In today’s Amhara land, at least people who live in urban areas wear shoes and socks. Generally more men wear socks with shoes than women. In 1997 E.C. there were 932,000 men above the age of five in the Amhara Region. If we assume that one person consumes at least three pairs of socks per year, total consumption of socks by men in the Region is about 2,796,000 pairs of socks. In the last 25 years, increasing number of rural people has started wearing socks and shoes. So, annual consumption of socks could be as large as 4 million pairs. But all these of socks are imported. If there is such a huge market for socks, there is a great opportunity to exploit this market by establishing small scale socks making plants in three or four urban centers of the region.
3. Source of Raw material: Socks are mode from cotton, woolen or acrylic yarn. Cotton yarn can be obtained from the textile factories of the country while woolen and acrylic yarn will be imported
4. Production Process & Technology: Major production processes include winding, knitting, linking, dyeing. Major machinery and equipment are specialized knitting machines, winding machine, linking machine, and setting machine, dyeing machine, steam iron and boiler for steam.
5. Estimated Investment: For a plant that will produce about 250,000 pairs of socks, total investment will be about Birr 1.5 million.
6. Benefits: To the Region’s Economy creates employment, contributes to self sufficiency in industrial products, creates linkages with the textile industry, keeps financial resources within the Region, saves foreign exchange.
7. Location: Bahir Dar, Combolcsa, Gondar.