Est 2004 · South Africa
Manufacturers of Knitwear andCustom Apparel Made To Last.
Casrix is a family-owned, proudly South African manufacturer built on generations of knitting expertise. Based in Harrismith, Free State, we produce knitwear, schoolwear, corporate uniforms, and security workwear, with sublimated sportswear and socks on the way. Everything is manufactured at scale, under one roof, using modern automated equipment and audited quality systems.
235+
Full-time employees, plus SETA learners
200+
Livelihoods supported in Harrismith & Tshiame
50+
Years of knitting-industry experience
7,660 m²
Manufacturing facility
100%
Local manufacturing
What we manufacture
Six divisions. One manufacturer.
Casrix started with one machine in a garage. Today, we manufacture across several product categories from a single factory floor in Harrismith.
Why Casrix
The family behind the factory.
Casrix was founded in 2004 by Franco and Susan Garella, though Franco’s story with textiles began much earlier. Born in Biella, Italy, a town built on wool and yarn, he immigrated to South Africa as a young child and started knitting jerseys in a garage at 21, on a single machine. He learned the trade the way manufacturers learn it: with his hands, through the machines, one stitch at a time. That knowledge, in yarn, tension, stitch density and garment construction, still shapes every garment Casrix makes today.
Susan stood beside him from the beginning. She married Franco in 1982 and has been the steadying force behind the business ever since, providing the governance and stability that helped it endure the harder years. Casrix was built by a husband and wife who kept going when the road was difficult.
Today, the next generation carries the business forward. Claudia leads compliance and strategy. Marco leads operations. Casrix remains family-owned, family-run, and proud of it.
What we stand for
Made For You
Your colours, your branding, your sizing. Every garment is manufactured to your exact specification.
Checked For You
Every unit is inspected before it leaves the floor, not just a sample from the batch.
Built For Any Order
From 50 units to 50,000. We plan the details with you before production starts.
Made in South Africa
Manufactured entirely in Harrismith, Free State.
Delivered On Time
We confirm timelines before we begin, and we meet them.
Supported By Real People
Speak to someone who knows the machines, the yarn and the process, not a call centre script.
How it works
From the brief to the final delivery.
Standard orders run about six weeks from confirmed specification, approved sample and yarn availability. Repeat styles move faster.
600,000+
Units sold in 2024/25
Brief & Specification
Tell us what you need
Materials, quantities, branding and delivery date. The more we know upfront, the better we can plan around it.
Sampling
Approve before we run
We produce a sample for your review and adjust it until you approve it. Production begins once you’re satisfied.
Production
Made to your spec
Your order enters the production schedule. Our machinery and our people work to your specification, with quality monitored at every stage.
Quality Control
Checked, then released
Every garment is checked before it leaves the floor. We take pride in that standard.
Dispatch
Delivered on time
Packed with care and delivered anywhere in South Africa, on a timeline we’ve confirmed with you in advance.
Casrix cares
Community matters to us.
Casrix supports more than 200 livelihoods in Harrismith and Tshiame. In a region where employment carries real weight, we take that responsibility seriously.
Behind every garment is a household. Behind every wage is food, school fees, dignity and hope.
About us
The story of Casrix.
Our name comes from two horses, Casey and Asterix, who belonged to our founders’ daughter, Claudia. Asterix taught her that falling is not failure; only staying down is. Casey taught her that a new partnership, built with patience and trust, can carry you further than the one before it.
Those lessons became the heart of Casrix: resilience, partnership, and family. The horse in our logo carries that meaning. It is not a decoration. It is a reminder of what we stand for.
Let’s talk
Let’s make quality together.
Every project starts with a conversation. Tell us what you need, and we will take it from there.
Home›Our Story
Two horses, a garage, and a family that kept going.
The story of Casrix runs from Biella, Italy, to Harrismith in the Free State. From a fire that took out its yarn supply, to a verified national-scale factory still run by the family that started it.
The founder
Learned by hand, one stitch at a time.
Franco Garella was born in 1954 in Biella, Italy, a town built on wool and yarn. He immigrated to South Africa as a young child and started knitting jerseys in a garage at 21, on a single machine. He learned the trade the way manufacturers learn it: with his hands, through the machines, one stitch at a time, understanding yarn tension, stitch density and garment construction from the inside out.
Franco and his wife Susan’s journey in knitwear began years before Casrix existed. Earlier chapters in the industry brought real setbacks, and the family rebuilt each time, carrying that hard-earned experience into the founding of Casrix in 2004.
Decades later, Franco is still most at home on the factory floor. He remains among the first people at the factory each morning, checking machines, yarn, production flow and quality before the day begins.
A marriage woven with love
The steadiness behind the business.
Susan married Franco in 1982 and has been beside him from the beginning, working shoulder to shoulder with him in knitwear from the early years. As sole director and CFO, she remains the governance and financial anchor of Casrix, the disciplined stability that helped build the company and carried it through the harder years.
Franco brought the technical obsession: the machines, the yarn, the factory rhythm. Susan brought the steadiness that turned that obsession into a lasting business.
Casrix was built by a husband and wife who kept going when the road was difficult.
Through difficult times
2020: The Year the Yarn Ran Out
In November 2020, Derlon Textiles, the sole local manufacturer of the acrylic yarn that Casrix depends on, burned down and was never rebuilt. Supply moved overnight from local to imported yarn from India, Turkey and China, bringing longer lead times, bulk-import working-capital pressure, and real planning risk.
Casrix stabilised through careful import planning, direct communication with clients on lead times, and IDC and dtic-supported expansion and machinery funding under the Retail-Clothing Textile Footwear Leather Master Plan. The factory kept its machines running and its people working.
The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition publicly reported Casrix’s recovery, noting that production grew from 240,000 to 750,000 units by June 2024 and that new jobs were created in Harrismith and Tshiame.
Read the reportThe next generation
Family-led, and staying that way.
Franco and Susan’s son and daughter are now part of the business. Claudia, trained in law with a background in litigation, moved fully into the business as compliance, funding, employment equity and public-procurement readiness became central to its next chapter. She leads compliance and strategy, and is the named key contact in the factory’s capability verification.
Marco joined full-time in 2021 with a BEng in Mechatronics and an industrial-plant background. He leads operations: production flow, machinery, maintenance and process improvement, bringing structure and measurement to decades of instinctive technical mastery.
Where Franco carries the craft, Susan carries the foundation, Claudia carries the structure, and Marco carries the systems. Together, they carry forward a business that remains proudly family-led: built on experience, strengthened by the next generation, and staying that way.
Talk to the people who make it.
Home›What We Manufacture
Six specialist manufacturing divisions.
From school jerseys to private-label wholesale runs, every division shares one factory floor in Harrismith, one BCR-verified quality system, and one family behind it. Casrix holds a 98% overall Business Capability Verification score, confirming the quality management, product capability, and process capability behind everything made here.
Our Divisions
One factory, six specialisations.
One Standard, Every Division
Verified from yarn to dispatch.
Every division runs on the same quality process, from yarn arrival through knitting, linking, finishing, and final inspection, checked and traceable at each stage. Whether you’re ordering 50 units or 50,000, the standard doesn’t change with the division.
Request a Quote.
Home›Who We Serve
Built for institutional buyers.
Schools, corporates, security companies, government departments, and trade buyers across South Africa, supplied at national scale with the paperwork to match.
Partner with Casrix.
Home›About Casrix
A multi-division manufacturer that stayed family-owned.
What began with one knitting machine in a garage has grown into an audited, 7,660 m² factory in Harrismith, Free State, employing 235 full-time staff and 13 SETA youth learners. More than two decades on, decisions are still made close to the production floor by the family that built it.
The name
Casey and Asterix. CAS-RIX.
Casey and Asterix were two horses that belonged to our founders’ daughter, Claudia. Asterix, her first horse, taught her that falling is not failure; only staying down is. Casey, who came later, taught her that a new partnership, given time and trust, can carry you further than the one before it.
CAS-RIX. That is where the name comes from, and it’s why the horse in our logo means something. It stands for resilience, trust, and the discipline to begin again, the same values that built the factory floor.
Casey & Asterix
Our manufacturing timeline
Four pivotal dates in Casrix history
2004
Founded in Harrismith by Franco and Susan Garella, carrying decades of hard-earned experience from earlier chapters in the knitwear industry.
2020
The region’s sole local acrylic-yarn supplier is lost to fire. Casrix moves to imported yarn from India, Turkey and China, and keeps every machine running.
2024
IDC and dtic-supported expansion and machinery funding, granted under the Retail-Clothing Textile Footwear Leather Master Plan. The dtic publicly reports production growth from 240,000 to 750,000 units, alongside new jobs created in the local economy.
2026
BCR 378 capability verification: a 98% overall score, confirming audited quality systems, equipment and people capability across the factory.
Verified and compliant
Manufacturing you can verify.
Casrix holds a SARS Tax Compliance Status of Good Standing, and Authorised Economic Operator approval at Level 2 AEO Security status. The factory’s Business Capability Verification Certificate (BCR 378) confirms its quality management system, product capabilities, process capabilities and people skills, alongside minimum-wage compliance. Casrix is procurement-ready for public-sector, corporate and institutional supply across South Africa, with export capability into Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini.
What We Stand For
The standards behind every garment.
Quality
Every garment passes multi-stage inspection, from yarn arrival to final dispatch. We check every unit, not a sample of the batch.
Reliability
We confirm timelines before production begins, and we hold to them. Our clients build their own schedules around ours.
Heritage
More than twenty years of family ownership, and decades more of hands-on knitting experience behind it.
Growth
We invest continuously in our people, our machinery, and the new capabilities we’re building, from embroidery to custom apparel.
Let’s talk manufacturing.
Home›Manufacturing Capability
Proven capability. Clearly documented.
Independent verification, automated production capability and the documentation procurement teams need, so you can feel confident in your orders.
600,000+
Units sold in 2024/25
98%
Independently verified business-capability scoreDefcon Protec Business Capability Verification, BCR 378 V01.0
235
Full-time employees, +13 SETA learners
7,660
m² manufacturing facility
Compliance and verification
Procurement-ready, on paper.
Current, verifiable credentials across manufacturing capability, employment compliance, public procurement and international trade.
Defcon Protec BCR 378 V01.0 verifies Casrix’s quality-management system, product and process capability, people skills and minimum-wage compliance.
Overall score: 98%.
Recognised by SARS Customs as a trusted and secure international trade operator. Tax-compliance documentation is available to procurement teams on request.
Employment Equity reporting is acknowledged, with supporting compliance documentation available for procurement review.
Registered for participation in public-sector procurement. Casrix also supplies government and public-sector channels.
Quality control
Checked, traced, released.
Quality runs on documented procedures: approved testing standards, controlled customer specifications, in-process inspection records, traceability and formal release approval. Final inspection verifies conformance before anything is packed.
A garment that fails inspection is isolated under red-sticker identification, then reworked to standard or removed from saleable stock entirely.
Working with Casrix
The practical details.
- Minimum orders
- Trade and institutional orders at commercially viable volumes. Bespoke custom runs from around 50 units, with higher minimums for special yarns or private-label programmes.
- Lead times
- About six weeks standard, from confirmed specification, approved sample and yarn availability. Repeat styles and standard colours move faster.
- Sampling
- Samples are quoted per product and complexity, with revisions recorded until you approve. Production begins only once you’re satisfied.
- Private label
- Manufactured to your specification and supplied ready for resale under your own brand.
- Delivery
- National delivery across South Africa, with an export profile into Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana and Eswatini.
Request a Quote.
Home›Sustainability
Responsible manufacturing, stated plainly.
No borrowed green claims. This page describes what the factory actually does today, and what it is actively building next.
Six pillars of responsible manufacturing
Real commitments, real progress.
01 · Local employment
People first, in the Free State
235 full-time employees plus 13 SETA youth learners, all in Harrismith and Tshiame, where manufacturing jobs carry real weight.
02 · Made in South Africa
100% local production
Every garment is manufactured entirely in Harrismith, Free State. Local production keeps quality control in-house at every stage, from yarn arrival to final dispatch.
03 · Skills development
Training the next generation
On-the-job training, SETA-linked learnerships, YES4Youth participation and formal FPMSETA/WSP/ATR workplace-skills processes build trade skills that stay in the community long after any single order ships.
04 · Energy security
Solar & storage, in progress
Casrix is actively pursuing solar and battery storage as part of its long-term energy-security and sustainability strategy, to protect production from load-shedding and reduce electricity cost exposure.
05 · Responsible materials
Open to certified yarns
Open to recycled or certified yarns where they meet specification, while engaging ITAC and the dtic on sustainable, tariff-efficient access to acrylic yarn.
06 · Waste handling
Separated and reused
Yarn offcuts and fabric waste are separated from finished goods; usable offcuts go to rework, sampling, training or donation, including non-garment fibre applications currently under investigation.
Want to know more about our sustainability commitments?
Home›Sustainability›Community Impact
Rooted in Harrismith. Built in Tshiame.
The factory operates inside the Maluti-a-Phofung Special Economic Zone, in a region where a manufacturing wage changes a household.
Employment
More than 200 livelihoods.
Casrix supports more than 200 livelihoods in Harrismith and Tshiame: 235 full-time employees plus 13 SETA youth learners on contract. Behind every garment is a household. Behind every wage is food, school fees, dignity and hope.
As a long-term industrial tenant in the Maluti-a-Phofung SEZ, Casrix is part of the local industrial-development ecosystem, procurement-ready for public-sector supply, and has operated in the community for more than 20 years.
Impact areas
The difference it makes.
Where it lands.
Local jobs
Direct employment in a community where manufacturing work carries deep social and economic weight, sustained across more than two decades of local operation.
Skills & learnerships
SETA-linked learnerships, YES4Youth participation, and formal FPMSETA-linked workplace-skills development, including Workplace Skills Plan and Annual Training Report processes, inside the factory.
Farm-school support
Practical schoolwear-related assistance for farm-school learners, so children in rural communities can attend school with dignity and warmth.
SA manufacturing
Publicly recognised by the dtic in September 2024 for job creation and production growth from 240,000 to 750,000 units by June 2024, supported by IDC and dtic-backed expansion and machinery funding under the Retail-Clothing Textile Footwear Leather Master Plan.
Want to know more about our community impact?
Home›Contact
Talk to the factory.
Your enquiry reaches the family leadership team directly, and a real person who knows the machines gets back to you personally.
Trade suppliers onlyCasrix manufactures for schools, businesses, institutions and wholesale buyers, and does not sell to the public.
Contact details
Harrismith, Free State
What happens next
Your enquiry reaches the family leadership team directly.
Someone who knows the machines and the yarn comes back to you personally.
We agree a sample and quote timeline before anything goes into production.
Home›Request a Quote
Request a quote.
Tell us what you need and our team will come back to you with pricing and lead times.
Trade suppliers onlyCasrix manufactures for schools, businesses, institutions and wholesale buyers, and does not sell to the public.
What to include
Standard orders run about six weeks from confirmed specification. The more detail you share, the faster we can scope and price your run.