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Senior Business Reporter
LOBELS Bread is operating at 85 percent capacity utilisation at its Bulawayo factory following the installation of a new and efficient $2 million production line in July.
Before commissioning of the line, the company had two lines producing 80,000 loaves per day but they have since been closed. “We’re now operating at 85 percent capacity as a result of the installation of the new production line. Before the installation of the new line our capacity was smaller,” Lobels chief executive officer Ngoni Mazango said.
He said the new line produces 100,000 loaves per day. He said the company’s shareholders sought funds to improve capacity by installing a new efficient line due to an increase in demand for bread.
As a result of its efficiency, the company now runs with one line.
Mazango said the bread producer was growing due to support it has been receiving from customers.
“We don’t have any challenges that we’re facing at the moment as our capacity has improved,” he said.
Last year, Lobels installed $5.8 million semi-automated machinery at its Harare plant, a development that has seen the production capacity at the plant going up by 20 percent to 250,000 loaves a day.
The bread producer, which almost collapsed under the burden of a $14 million debt, has been rehabilitated by a consortium of banks.
Lobels Bread, which is now owned by banks — NMB, FBC, CBZ and Metbank under the vehicle Altiwave — began operations in Zimbabwe between the late 1940s and early 1950s when it was run by the Lobel brothers.
In 2002, a consortium of local entrepreneurs came together and bought Lobels Bread in Harare and Bulawayo.
derick.khumalo