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Martin Kadzere in Mutare
Cairns Foods will invest as much as $5 million this year to modernise its factories and rebranding while a robust out grower scheme has been put in place to promote local production of farm produce, an official has said. Speaking at the Buy Zimbabwe 6th Buy Local Summit on Wednesday, Cairns general manager Mr Joseph Mavu told delegates that about $2,7 million would be spent on a plant upgrade to boost production capacity while the remainder would be channelled towards rebranding of its products.“We have a lot of idle capacity and we are now working on improving utilisation of our plants,” said Mr Mavu.
Cairns has six factories — four in Harare, one in Marondera and another one in Mutare — all operating at an average of 40 percent.
Some of the products being produced in Harare include chips and snacks, biscuits and peanut butter. In Marondera, the company produces wines and spirits while the recently re-opened Mutare plant produces Cashel baked beans and peas.
“We are up again…on a growth trajectory and we feel it’s our time to recreate jobs,” said Mr Mavu, adding that capacity utilisation has since grown from an average seven percent to 40 percent. He said some of their brands were “tired” and investing in the rebranding would provide a “facelift” to most of its products.”
Without disclosing how much the company would spend on the out-grower scheme, Mr Mavu said the programme was meant to curtail imports of raw materials through supporting local production of farm produce. Mr Mavu said the company intends to increase hectarage under the outgrower programme for peas to 2000ha in 2017 from 900ha when the scheme started last year.
He said the company has already contracted more than 2 000 farmers who are producing raw materials for its factories and has just embarked on an out-grower scheme for potatoes.
Online Reporter