Bolux expands plant to boost capacity
Isaac Pinielo | Friday October 2, 2015 11:24
Bolux recently sold a 49 percent stake to Seaboard in a move aimed at securing investment and capital injection into the company.
Head of corporate affairs at Bolux, Nkosi Mwaba said the company has been operating an old plant since 1984 adding that it needed to be refurbished.
Mwaba noted that the expansion project will be completed in about 12 months and during that period, production will not be affected.
“The plant has been operating for 30 years and it needs refurbishment and technological upgrades so it becomes a state-of-the-art plant,” he said.
In a presentation addressed to the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mwaba stated that the expansion of the plant includes the wheat mill, maize mill, pasta and bakery areas.
He said this will lead to an increased grain trading environment that would enable local farmers to sell more produce at market-related prices, adding that the expansion will also assist local grain and poultry farmers through shared knowledge from similar projects elsewhere in Africa.
It will also lead to increased direct export opportunities through investing into Bolux’s production capacity.
According to Mwaba, the plant currently sells 3,620 tonnes of wheat, 2070 tonnes of maize, 700 tonnes of pasta and 45,000 loaves of bread on a monthly basis.
Targeted monthly sales when the plant has been expanded is 5,600 tonnes of flour at a growth rate of 55 percent, 2,500 tonnes of maize meal with a 21 percent growth rate, 1,000 tonnes of pasta at a growth rate of 43 percent and 180,000 loaves of bread at 300 percent growth.
However, Mwaba ruled out the possibility of shortage of raw materials that could occur as a result of the drought, stating that the miller has secured its stock for the next harvest.
In addition, he said the expansion has a potential to create additional direct employment over time once all expansion projects are up and running. Employing over 400 Batswana, Bolux expects to create 200 more jobs.
The company produces and packages brands like; A1 Super maize meal brand, Snow White flour and Polana pasta.
Seaboard Botswana Holdings is a company registered in the Bahamas, which was established for the purpose of acquiring the minority interest in the Bolux Group.
It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seaboard Corporation, a US-listed entity with investments globally, in the food processing grain-trading sector. Seaboard has invested in 17 African countries.