Zimpapers Logo

Business Reporter
Zimbabwean businessman Adam Molai and Indian billionaire Ravi Jaipuria are forging ahead with the $30 million Pepsi bottling plant to be built in Harare, despite administrative delays that have extended the development timeline.

The plant, initially scheduled for completion at the end of 2016, is now expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2017, subject to the necessary approvals from various government agencies being effected timeously.

In a statement, PepsiCo Africa chief executive Krishnar Shankar said the Pepsi bottling plant, set to create upward of 3 000 jobs in Zimbabwe, will be one of the biggest investments in the FMCG manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe in recent years.

Mr Shankar believes the initiative will not only fast-track job creation and support businesses; it also has the potential to catalyze investment in Zimbabwe by other multinationals in the FMCG space.

“This will boost the confidence of other multinationals, with the thought ‘If Pepsi is doing it, why shouldn’t we?” said Mr Shankar.

The Pepsi bottling plant, with a total investment of $30 million from India’s Varun Beverages, will occupy a total land space of 7,3 hectares, including an 8,125 square metres manufacturing facility and a 1,330 square metre utility area.

The plant will bring to Zimbabwe world-class manufacturing equipment including a Linker automatic filling and crowning machine from Poland, an automatic sugar conveying machine from India, a shrink wrapper machine from Germany, Automatic CIP (Cleaning in Place) system and more.

In the launch phase, the plant will have a high speed 600 bottles per minute production line and an ultra-modern 400 can per minute filling line.

In addition to creating jobs in Zimbabwe, the modern facility will provide an opportunity for Zimbabwean technical students to gain first-hand exposure to the latest manufacturing technologies.

However, possibly because of the massive scale of the project, red tape has slowed the necessary approvals.

Mr Shankar said Varun Beverages chairman Ravi Jaipuria has intervened in a bid to secure the processing of the necessary authorisations.

“During the last visit of our Chairman in April 2016, he met various Government stakeholders and was given an assurance of speedy processing of approvals. For example, the process of getting the land we have purchased registered in the name of the company is a long one, and involves various processes. We have also encountered delays in VAT processes with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA),” said Mr Shankar.

Mr Shankar believes administrative delays could detract from foreign investment in Zimbabwe.

“We secured land in Zambia with no delays, and resolved VAT registration in neighbouring countries like Mozambique and Zambia with no problems,” he points out, urging the Zimbabwean |Government to facilitate the same ease of doing business.

“I believe this Pepsi project should be seen as a showcase initiative, with the government ensuring there are no delays in approvals and licences, to showcase Zimbabwe’s investment potential to the world,” he said.

He said the plant has the potential to contribute significantly to the Zimbabwean economy once it is up and running.

“As far as the revenue benefits are concerned, we can compare the new plant to Pepsi in Zambia. Prior to the entry of Pepsi, the industry size of Zambia was 16 million cases. In only five years the industry size has nearly doubled, to 30 million cases. This has a direct impact on the revenue of the Government in terms of VAT,” he said.