Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
Kwekwe based dairy firm, Dendairy plans to make further investments on new equipment in 2015 in addition to the $4 million investment made last year. This year, according to director Daryl Archibald, the company will invest in a new ice-cream manufacturing line . Mr Archibald told The Herald Business yesterday that despite the prevailing tight liquidity environment the company has plans to grow in the current year.
He said the new production line is expected to introduce new flavours in the company’s product portfolio.
“We invested an additional $4 million towards bringing a new line and we hope this will go a long way in increasing our product portfolio after investing about $6 million towards the purchase of our Tetrapak plant in Kwekwe.
“There is hope for growth in 2015,” said Mr Archibald.
Dendairy has already invested about $6 million towards the purchase of a Tetrapak plant which saw the company becoming the first local dairy firm to introduce long shelf-life milk on the market. This new investment will bring the company’s total investment on plant expansion to $10 million in almost two years. The already operational Tetrapak plant will see the dairy company increasing milk production to five million litres a month against a national demand of eight million litres per month.
He said measures taken by Government to restrict the importation of dairy products are a welcome development and such intervention will ensure growth for the dairy industry in the current year.