Pepsi installs sh26b machinery, capacity grows by 80%

Apr 02, 2009

CROWN Beverages, the bottlers of Pesi-Cola products, has installed a $13m (about sh26b) modern German-made machinery, boosting its production capacity by 80%.

By Vision Reporter

CROWN Beverages, the bottlers of Pesi-Cola products, has installed a $13m (about sh26b) modern German-made machinery, boosting its production capacity by 80%.

The line that started operations in February has an installed capacity of 40,000 bottles per hour, giving the company capacity to produce 22 million cases per year.

“The demand for our products has been growing significantly over the last three years and for us to meet this demand, it was important that we invest to ensure our brands are available all the time,” Simon Lugoloobi, the chief executive officer, explained to the media at a luncheon at the Kampala Serena Hotel recently.

He added that the investment in production and distribution was also spurred by the need to continually improve the company’s market share across the region as well as provide a wide range of products.

Lugoloobi disclosed that their market share had grown after the introduction of new brands like Mountain Dew, Mirinda Pineapple, Mirinda Lemon and most recently Mirinda Vanilla.

The company has also increased its portfolio to include cans and PET packages for the consumer on the move.

To grow the multi-serve and take-home market, Lugoloobi noted that plans were underway to introduce Mirinda and Pepsi variants in one litre glass bottles to coincide with the Easter season.

“We shall continue to innovate thus offering more choice to our consumers. Additionally, we need to enhance our focus on distribution and our retailers’ storage facilities like fridges to enable our consumers access our brands in all parts of the country in the best condition,” he noted.

Lugoloobi, however, conceded that the local market remained untapped with per capita consumption of soda at only 22 bottles compared to 40 and 35 in Kenya and Tanzania respectively.

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