* Sees revenue climbing 11 percent in year to March 31
* Expects new 600,000 hectolitre plant by Nov. 2009
* To add new bottling plant in Dar es Salaam
By George Obulutsa
ZANZIBAR, March 23 (Reuters) - Tanzania Breweries, a subsidiary of South African SABMiller, said on Monday revenue for the March year could rise by up to 11 percent on the previous year's 383 billion shillings ($290 million).
Managing Director Robin Goetzsche told Reuters TBL also had plans to boost its production capacity by 600,000 hectolitres before November, by building a $55 million brewery.
"We should see good double-digit growth, around 10 to 11 percent in revenue growth, which is positive for us, bearing in mind the tough couple of sessions ahead of us in terms of world economy," he said.
TBL, majority-owned by SABMiller has beer production capacity of just over 3.4 million hectolitres, against sales of about 3.25 million hectolitres per year.
"We are building a new brewery which we will be commissioning in November in Mbeya. The brewery in the south is an investment of $55 million," Goetzsche said in an interview on the sidelines of an investors' meeting in Zanzibar.
"The new plant will have an annual capacity of, to start with, 600,000 hectolitres."
Goetzsche said the Mbeya plant would easily be upgraded to double its capacity as needed.
The company is expanding to meet rising demand fuelled by a booming economy in recent years.
He said TBL was also add a new 48,000 bottles an hour bottling line in its Dar es Salaam plant, to start operations in April, and upgrade other existing bottling plants.
The company also intends to boost its Mwanza plant to 850,000 hectolitres by mid-2009, he said.
"We will be expanding that to initially about 850,000 hectolitres, but part of overall footprint we are looking at would be to take it to 1 million hectolitres within the next five to seven years."
Among the challenges TBL faces are congestion at the Dar es Salaam port, poor roads as well as unreliable power supply.
Among TBL's major shareholders are SABMiller with a 52.83 percent shareholding and East African Breweries with 20 percent. It is listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, with the public owning just over 6 percent.
The rest is split amongst Tanzanian pension funds and the International Finance Corporation. (Editing by Andrew Macdonald) ($1=1320.0 Tanzanian Shilling)
Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk
* Expects new 600,000 hectolitre plant by Nov. 2009
* To add new bottling plant in Dar es Salaam
By George Obulutsa
ZANZIBAR, March 23 (Reuters) - Tanzania Breweries, a subsidiary of South African SABMiller, said on Monday revenue for the March year could rise by up to 11 percent on the previous year's 383 billion shillings ($290 million).
Managing Director Robin Goetzsche told Reuters TBL also had plans to boost its production capacity by 600,000 hectolitres before November, by building a $55 million brewery.
"We should see good double-digit growth, around 10 to 11 percent in revenue growth, which is positive for us, bearing in mind the tough couple of sessions ahead of us in terms of world economy," he said.
TBL, majority-owned by SABMiller has beer production capacity of just over 3.4 million hectolitres, against sales of about 3.25 million hectolitres per year.
"We are building a new brewery which we will be commissioning in November in Mbeya. The brewery in the south is an investment of $55 million," Goetzsche said in an interview on the sidelines of an investors' meeting in Zanzibar.
"The new plant will have an annual capacity of, to start with, 600,000 hectolitres."
Goetzsche said the Mbeya plant would easily be upgraded to double its capacity as needed.
The company is expanding to meet rising demand fuelled by a booming economy in recent years.
He said TBL was also add a new 48,000 bottles an hour bottling line in its Dar es Salaam plant, to start operations in April, and upgrade other existing bottling plants.
The company also intends to boost its Mwanza plant to 850,000 hectolitres by mid-2009, he said.
"We will be expanding that to initially about 850,000 hectolitres, but part of overall footprint we are looking at would be to take it to 1 million hectolitres within the next five to seven years."
Among the challenges TBL faces are congestion at the Dar es Salaam port, poor roads as well as unreliable power supply.
Among TBL's major shareholders are SABMiller with a 52.83 percent shareholding and East African Breweries with 20 percent. It is listed on the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange, with the public owning just over 6 percent.
The rest is split amongst Tanzanian pension funds and the International Finance Corporation. (Editing by Andrew Macdonald) ($1=1320.0 Tanzanian Shilling)
Business Feed Article | Business | guardian.co.uk