adminLovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
SOCIETE Industrielle (Lesaffre), which snapped a majority stake in the country’s sole yeast manufacturer, Anchor Yeast, has undertaken to establish vocational training facilities and baking centres as part of its skills transfer initiative.
The French-owned firm recently acquired a 60 percent stake in Anchor Yeast, which has resulted in the rebranding of the Gweru-based yeast producer to Lesaffre Zimbabwe.
Jean Philipe Poulin, the managing director of the group’s Africa operations, said establishing vocational training centres and baking centres would empower locals to attain internationally accredited skills to set up their own businesses.
“It’s a tradition for us in the main countries that we create baking centres. These are countries which are strategic and Zimbabwe fits in this profile. We build baking centres to train our employees so that they learn the best practices in the industry to create the best bread,” he said.
“We’ll set up a baking centre in Harare and invite some of our employees and our clients to work with them to create a newrange of products. We would also want to train school leavers. We’ll be working with the ministry of Youth, Indigenisation andEconomic Empowerment in that regard.”
To facilitate empowerment of women, slots will be availed for women’s groups to be trained in baking, confectionary and allied skills so that they can set up and open their own bakeries.
As part of the deal, the France-based company will inject $6 million into the country’s sole yeast manufacturer towards recapitalisation. Production is set to reach optimum levels from the current 86 percent capacity utilisation and increase the workforce to 200 from 125 by mid next year.
Lesaffre Group controls more than 80 subsidiaries around the world with about 60 percent of the world market and an estimated 8,000 workforce.
Its products are sold in more than 180 countries.
Online Reporter