Mr Manhambara
Business Reporter
BRICK and tile manufacturing company – Beta Holdings – has injected $3 million towards the acquisition of new top-notch trucks as part of a strategy to expand its business under Beta Logistics.Group chief executive Mr Godfrey Manhambara said the state-of-the-art trucks – the first of its kind in Zimbabwe were imported from the United States of America while the cranes which operate along with the Freightliner vehicles were sourced from Germany.
Despite the harsh prevailing economic climate, Beta Holdings managed to commission the vehicles recently.
The trucks, according to Mr Manhambara, load and off-load over 10 000 bricks using the crane on the vehicle within 15 minutes.
This, he explained, reduces labour costs and intensity since a truck is operated by a driver rather than a group of four to five people when loading or off-loading bricks manually.
“We commissioned the trucks in January under phase one and we have more vehicles coming for phase two. These state-of-the-art vehicles help cut cases of pilferage and breaking bricks,” said Mr Manhambara.
He added that the company was also aiming at investing in new technologies to boost its brick manufacturing capacity and meet the high market demands.
Currently, the company is the leading brick manufacturer and controls 60 percent of the market.
Beta Holdings has since spread its wings after opening shop in Zambian after entering into an agentship agreement with a Lusaka firm – Kumalinga Trading Limited for the supply of its products.
Apart from the state-of-the-art trucks, Beta Holdings also has a top-notch tile manufacturing plant – Modulo 40 semi-automatic plant which was sourced from Italy and has a tremendous capacity of producing 330 000 tiles per week – which is enough to roof over 100 standard houses.
The tiles do not lose colour for up to 100 years, according to Mr Manhambara.
“Since 2009, there has been a tremendous improvement in terms of household construction although local and central Government as well as commercial construction has slowed.
“Our main challenge is power cuts because we operate around the clock with our workforce of about 800. We have negotiated for uninterrupted power supplies but most of the infrastructure around Mt Hampden area is old, hence we experience a lot of faults,” he said.
Mr Manhambara said Beta Holdings was also grappling with environmental rehabilitation and has since started working in partnership with the Environmental Management Agency to fill up old mining pits.
“Innovation and technology never stand still and in that respect, as Beta Holdings we will constantly ensure that we are always in step with latest international trends in the industry; thereby enabling us to deliver unparalleled and inimitable quality bricks and tiles. Furthermore, the creation of employment means a direct and positive contribution to the Zimbabwean economy,” he said.