GMB to launch two more Silo products

market.
GMB general manager Mr Albert Mandizha said they would soon introduce two more products on the market under the Silo brand.
“Part of our commercialisation innovation has given us the scope to introduce more products on the market,” he said.
GMB currently has nine products under the Silo brand including mealie meal, salt, ground coffee and rice.
During 2008, Silo products had virtually disappeared from shelves, but resurfaced around mid-2009.
Mr Mandizha said GMB had managed to pay off the US$5 million loan facilitated by CBZ Bank before the adoption of the multiple currency system for its commercialisation drive.
“As an organisation, we have shown that we are very creditworthy. We have since ploughed back the profits into our commercial venture and can safely say that its capitalisation is now worth US$40 million and growing,” said Mr Mandizha.
He said that through the Silo brand, they had proved to be a game changer and other producers have taken a cue from their pricing, which is cheaper.
Mr Mandizha took the opportunity to dispel the misconception that one of their brands, Pagoda Rice, was imported from Thailand, pointing out that it was a GMB product.
“Many people thought Pagoda Rice was imported because of the advertisement that featured rice paddy fields.
“However, the product is exclusively ours as well as Pagoda Maputi,” said Mr Mandizha.
The GMB has now been split into five strategic commercial units with the unbundling expected to give the GMB a new lease of life after an extensive rationalisation programme that has overhauled the parastatal.
Some of the ventures are already operational while others are still on the drawing board. Apart from an agro-processing unit, farmers support services, a trading unit and grain bag manufacturing, the GMB will also run a logistical arm that will invest in a fleet of trucks to move grain around the country.