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invested around US$250 million in several strategic areas,” he said.
“The investment has resulted in the company gen­erating business to the tune of US$1,2 billion during the same period,” he said.
He was speaking at the official launch of the com­pany’s new US$17 million bottling line in Souther­ton.
The company is also investing US$4 million in new fermentation vessels at both its Harare (Southerton) and Bulawayo plants.
Since 2009 the Delta has embarked on an aggres­sive re-capitalisation drive to boost capacity by more than  80 percent.
According to Mr Dube, the investment has also resulted in an increase in the company’s contribution to the fiscus.
“Between February 2009 and September this year, we have paid US$400 million in excise duty, Value Added Tax, corporate tax and other taxes to the State, and this is compared with the US$43 million paid out to shareholders during the same period,” he said.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who attended the function, said he appreciated the beverages pro­ducer’s contribution to the fiscus in the previous  financial year.
“A total of US$158 million accrued to the Govern­ment through excise duty, VAT and income tax from Delta’s business for the year ended March 31, 2012,” he said.
“This compares with US$73,8 million profit after-tax and dividends of US$24,7 million in the same period. We applaud this significant contribution to the fiscus.”
Minister Biti announced Treasury would carry out an analysis of Delta’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product, similar to what was done for Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Plat­inum Holdings last year.
Some of the major investments that Delta has made to date include the installation of a US$14 mil­lion PET line in July last year, a US$12,9 million bot­tling line at Southerton last December, and a US$14,6 mil­lion packaging line at the Belmont plant in Bulawayo in February this year.
Other investments this year include the establish­ment of a carbon dioxide processing plant in March, and a 14 tonne boiler at the Bulawayo plant, and a US$13 million sparkling beverages plant in Granite­side, Harare.
The new bottling line, which can produce 700 000 hectolitres per annum, will boost the company’s                total national lager capacity to 2,4 million hectolitres.
The new plant also has the capacity to run both returnable and non-returnable glass bottles and has a shrink wrapping capacity.
Zimbabwe has a per capita consumption of around 14 litres per annum (for beer excluding sorghum beer) and 11 litres per annum (for sparkling bever­ages), which are low by developing world standards, which yields extensive growth potential for Delta in view of its capacity growth.