Fine Spinners’ Sh20 Billion Expansion Signals New Push For Value-Added Manufacturing
+256 702 23 93 37: New Markets In Japan And Europe Fine Spinners says the expansion is intended to strengthen its existing export business while opening additional markets, particularly in Japan and Europe.
UgandaToday: Fine Spinners’ Sh20 Billion Expansion Signals New Push For Value-Added Manufacturing
Kampala Textile Investment Targets Japan And European Markets
Uganda’s textile manufacturing sector is preparing for a significant expansion after Fine Spinners Uganda announced a further investment of about Sh20 billion ($5 million) in new machinery at its Bugolobi plant in Kampala.
The investment takes the company’s total machinery expenditure to approximately $35 million, equivalent to more than Sh137 billion at the exchange rate reported on September 17.
According to Uganda media, the new machinery is expected to increase the mill’s production capacity by between 30 and 40 per cent when fully commissioned. The expansion could add between 30 and 40 tonnes of yarn and approximately 150,000 to 200,000 garments each month.
New Markets In Japan And Europe
Fine Spinners says the expansion is intended to strengthen its existing export business while opening additional markets, particularly in Japan and Europe.
The company currently exports to markets including Germany, Denmark, Spain, Gabon, South Sudan and Rwanda, in addition to selling products in Uganda and Kenya.
The new machinery includes equipment supplied by specialist manufacturers from Switzerland, Belgium, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Italy and Germany, reflecting the increasingly international nature of Uganda’s manufacturing supply chain.
Worker operate textile machinery at Fine Spinners Uganda’s Bugolobi plant. The company is investing an additional $5 million in machinery as it seeks to expand production and export markets.
More Jobs And A Larger Market For Cotton Farmers
The expansion could also have implications beyond the factory gates.
Fine Spinners currently employs about 1,600 people directly and expects the new production lines to create an additional 150 to 200 jobs.
The company also sources cotton directly from approximately 15,000 smallholder farmers, purchasing thousands of cotton bales annually.
For Uganda’s cotton industry, increased domestic processing offers an opportunity to capture more value before cotton leaves the country.
Sector figures cited by Uganda Business News indicate that approximately 93 per cent of Uganda’s 2023/24 cotton crop was exported as raw lint, while only about seven per cent was processed domestically.
The AGOA Challenge
Fine Spinners’ expansion comes against the background of Uganda’s continued exclusion from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the United States trade programme that provides eligible African countries with preferential access to the American market.
Uganda lost AGOA eligibility in January 2024 following the United States Government’s decision relating to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, and Uganda remained outside the beneficiary list in the June 2026 review cited by Uganda Business News.
The company is therefore pursuing alternative routes into international markets, including supplying fabric to manufacturers producing garments in Kenya’s export-processing zones.
Can Manufacturing Transform Uganda’s Cotton Story?
Uganda has long produced cotton, but much of the economic value associated with the crop is created elsewhere when raw cotton is exported for processing.
Investment in spinning, weaving, dyeing and garment manufacturing could allow more of that value to remain within the country while creating employment and stronger markets for farmers.
The Fine Spinners investment therefore comes at a time when Uganda’s broader industrial policy challenge remains clear: moving from exporting agricultural raw materials towards producing finished or semi-finished goods for regional and international consumers.
The immediate test will be whether the additional capacity translates into sustainable export orders, more jobs, stronger farmer incomes and greater domestic value addition.
For Uganda’s textile industry, the Bugolobi expansion represents both an industrial investment and a test of whether local manufacturing can compete successfully in a demanding global market.
Textile machinery at Fine Spinners Uganda’s Kampala plant. The company says its expansion will increase production capacity and create additional employment.
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