NATIONAL Foods Holdings Limited (Natfoods) chief executive officer Michael Lashbrook says his recent crowning as the best executive reflects team effort at the consumer staples concern.
Lashbrook scooped the CEO of the Year Award at the recently held Director of the Year Awards, hosted by Institute of Directors Zimbabwe, which recognise a director’s contribution to his or her respective board’s direction, strategy and corporate social responsibility.
The executive has managed to successfully navigate National Foods post its delisting from the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange in January.
“This award to us recognises the efforts of the National Foods team. As an organisation, we are only as good as our team, and this award pays tribute to the efforts of our team as a whole. The key decision National Foods has taken over the last three years is our decision to broaden our product offering by investing up the value chain,” Lashbrook said in emailed responses to NewsDay Business.
“This has resulted in the establishment of our pasta, cereals and biscuit plants. These investments see National Foods moving up the value chain from our previous portfolio of basic commodities. In addition, each of the projects sees increased value addition of locally grown cereals and the substitution of previously imported products with locally-manufactured products.”
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Investments into National Foods’ pasta, biscuits and cereal plants have been completed, with the firm now focused on its stockfeeds, snacks and rice plants.
“We anticipate capital expenditure of around US$15 million in the coming year. The bulk of this will be spent on upgrades to our stockfeeds, snacks and rice plants,” Lashbrook said.
In July last year, National Foods revealed it had spent US$40 million as capital expenditure over the past three years to introduce new production lines and scale up existing production to target the informal and export markets.
Part of this expenditure included US$5,6 million set aside for a new pasta production line, biscuit production line (US$7,7 million) and US$4 million for breakfast/cereal production line.
Lashbrook said the consumer staples concern was playing a small role in progressing Zimbabwe’s food industry.
“Our team’s major objective is to develop and produce affordable, high-quality food products which add value to the lives of the Zimbabwean consumer,” he said.
The executive said these new projects would see the firm further add value to the basic commodities that it produces.
“From a national perspective, this will increase the market for locally-grown cereals and it will also reduce the nation’s import bill as these products were previously imported into the country,” Lashbrook said.
“National Foods buys its raw material from all Zimbabwean farmers, be they large-scale or small-scale. The basic raw material in pasta is flour, which itself is made from wheat; as wheat requires irrigation, it is mainly grown by large-scale farmers.
“That said, cereals such as maize are mainly grown by small-scale farmers and as such, they supply the
bulk of our locally-sourced maize.”
National Foods mainly distributes its products through the formal trade, being the larger wholesalers and retailers.
For informal players, National Foods only supplies to those who are value-added tax-registered and compliant with the law.
“We are currently doing a limited volume of exports, but our key focus with our new products is satisfying the demands of the local market,” Lashbrook said.
“Once we are happy that the local market is being correctly supplied, we will turn to exports.”
