adminproducing 100 000 loaves per day, while the Bulawayo factory is producing 50 000. A new line will be installed at Harare bakery, which resumed operations last Friday, after closing for three months.
This would raise daily capacity to 250 000 loaves while refurbishments at the Bulawayo plant will see production doubling to 100 000.
At its peak, Lobels produced 400 000 loaves a day and commanded about 40 percent of the market.
“In our effort to modernise, Lobels new bakery equipment will be installed in
February-March 2013,” Mr Chibanga told journalists during a familiarisation tour of the Harare factory.
“It is envisaged that by the end of March 2013, (the) Harare (factory) will have an installed capacity of 250 000 units per day while Bulawayo (plant) will be producing 100 000 units. The company is also working on expanding confectionery operations.”
In terms of job creation, the expansion programme will add 300 additional jobs from the current 870.
Lobels was taken over by a consortium of local banks called Altiwave. The banks — FBC Bank, CBZ Bank, NMB Bank, Metbank and Capital Bank — were owed US$14 million.
“The takeover was to achieve a number of goals, such as preservation of jobs, protection of all creditors, keeping the Lobels brand in the market, among other things,” said Mr Chibanga.
He said the restructuring of the company “is nearing completion”.
The company was established in 1957 by Lobels in Bulawayo, then the country’s industrial hub. The company was then sold to a consortium of indigenous Zimbabweans in 2002.
A few years after the takeover, the company ran into serious financial problems.
Peter Tanyanyiwa
Online Reporter