Nestlé Zimbabwe plans to upgrade its milk-drying tower and spread its tentacles into the region this year, a senior company official has said.
BY VICTORIA MTOMBA
In an e-mailed response to NewsDay, Nestle’s regional manager for Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, Ben Ndiaye, said their main target this year was to upgrade the milk-drying tower, but declined to disclose the cost of the project.
“In 2015 the major project will be the upgrade of milk-drying tower. From 2011 Nestle’ invested $30 million in the upgrade of production capacity of the Cerevita and Cerelac plant and operating efficiencies for the whole factory,” Ndiaye said.
Ndiaye, a Senegalese national with 26 years’ experience in the Nestle group, replaced Kumbirayi Katsande who left the company last September.
He came to Zimbabwe in November and he was based in Nestle’ Group’s head office in Vevey, Switzerland, as head of culinary strategic business unit for Africa and Middle East and Turkey.
“Capacity is largely dependent on local consumer demand our plan is also to look beyond and exploit the neighbouring countries such as Malawi and Zambia,” Ndiaye said.
Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product is $20 billion and the GDP per capita is $1 000 which make it a competitive market for local manufacturing countries. Malawi’s GDP is estimated at $15 billion while GDP per capita is estimated at $900.
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GDP measures national income and output for an economy and per capita GDP measures the total output of a country that takes the gross domestic product (GDP) and divides it by the number of people in the country.
A rise in per capita GDP signals growth in the economy and tends to translate as an increase in productivityNdiaye said the company in 2014 witnessed a decrease in local consumer demand and the slowdown in business was pronounced in the last months of the year.
“Also in such difficult business times it is crucial to change the mindset and reduce our cost of doing business by removing the non-essential expenses and sustaining our investment in manufacturing, brand building and our Nutrition Health and Wellness ambition,” Ndiaye said.
