Fischer Housing & Engineering, a long-standing South African engineering firm, has nearly ceased operations after 50 years in business, with only five employees left and virtually no chance of recovery.
The company began in 1975 as Fischer Engineering, a small factory in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha), with just eight people.
It grew rapidly, outgrowing its initial 400 square metre premises within two years.
It moved to a 1,200 square metre facility, and later expanded again to a 6,400 square metre factory on a 9,200 square metre property to keep up with growing demand.
In 2003, a second entity, Fischer Housing, was registered. The group specialized in tooling and designing specialist machines, with a strong focus on South Africa’s then-burgeoning automotive industry.
The company told the SABC that it saw significant growth in its early years.
“By 2012, we employed 215 people, with our main customer base being the automotive industry,” the group said.
“Unfortunately, most of our customers decided to replace the parts we supplied with imported goods. That, in turn, forced the company to retrench our staff to where we have five people working here.”
The economic decline over the last decade slowly eroded the business, leading to falling demand, job losses, and now, a near-total shutdown.
One of the remaining employees confirmed that the company stopped operating at the end of June 2025.
There is still some talk of finding part-time contracts to keep the business running until December, but a full shutdown appears inevitable.
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Fischer Housing & Engineering is just one of many medium-sized businesses in South Africa that have suffered under decades of slow economic growth.
Its closure could be a sign of what’s to come for other businesses, especially with a 30% tariff on exports to the United States set to take effect in August.
According to the latest data from Stats SA, 623 businesses have been liquidated in the first five months of 2025, with 85 being compulsory (or forced) liquidations.
On average, South Africa sees more than 1,500 business liquidations per year.
While 2024 was on the lower end of the scale, this still represents a high level of closures.
The highest number of liquidations occurred in 2019 and 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, when over 2,000 businesses shut down.
Since then, the numbers have gone down, but legal experts caution against interpreting this as a sign of economic improvement.
South Africa’s economy has averaged below 1% GDP growth for over a decade.
Experts believe the falling number of liquidations may simply reflect the fact that there are fewer businesses left to liquidate.
Compulsory liquidations, which are a key indicator of financial distress, have stayed at similar levels each year since 2019.
Looking ahead, the situation is expected to worsen in 2025, with yet another year of sub-1% growth projected.
Critical sectors like agriculture, automotive manufacturing, and steel are already under strain and will likely face even more pressure from the global tariff war and the upcoming 30% US export tariff.
Industry leaders have already raised alarms about the impact of these tariffs on local operations, with tens of thousands of jobs at stake.
If those concerns materialize, Fischer Housing & Engineering’s fate may soon become a reality for many other South African businesses struggling to stay afloat.
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Image Credit: Business Tech
