Online Reporter
Business Reporter
NEW brick-making firms, leveraging modern technology and lower prices, are now dominating their traditional rivals in the sector.
Long-established traditional firms like Beta Bricks, McDonald Bricks and Willdale are presently struggling with outdated equipment and financial constraints.
Most of the new firms are selling common bricks for an average of US$90 per 1 000, which is about 30 percent cheaper than the US$130 charged by some traditional companies.
Industry experts say the new entrants’ bricks, despite being slightly smaller, offer customers significant cost savings while still meeting or exceeding minimum strength requirements set by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ).
According to SAZ standards, a common brick must have an average strength of 7MPa (megapascals) and a minimum individual strength of 5MPa.
A megapascal is a unit of pressure measuring the brick’s competitive strength.
The impact of bristling competition on two of the industry’s old companies — Willdale and Beta Bricks — has been evident.
In its trading update for the three months ended June 2025, Willdale reported that the company’s year-to-date extrusion was down by 52 percent, while fired production and sales volumes dropped by 41 percent and 34 percent, respectively.
Beta has since been driven into voluntary liquidation. The company is now struggling to find investors and has debts in excess of US$25 million, including funds owed to customers who had pre-paid for bricks.
It says the funding is essential for investing in a modern, high-efficiency production plant.
Similarly, Beta Bricks, which once flagged underinvestment in Zimbabwe’s brick industry, committed to a US$10 million project to construct a new factory in Goromonzi, located approximately 40 kilometres east of Harare.
The new plant, which was expected to be the most advanced brick factory in Zimbabwe, using modern US technology, was projected to produce 180 million bricks per annum. However, the factory was not completed by the time the firm went into corporate rescue.
Many traditional companies could not recapitalise their operations when the sector was depressed.
An increase in construction activities since 2018 exposed the companies’ weaknesses.
They could not keep pace with rising demand. This created opportunities for new players.
In an interview earlier this year, Africa Roundtable chief executive officer Mr Kipson Gundani said local brick manufacturers were in decline due to outdated technology, lack of investment and an uncompetitive macroeconomic environment.
“Competitiveness presupposes that there is efficiency,” Mr Gundani said.
“For you to be competitive, you have to be efficient. You have to be producing the right product at the least possible price.
“No local brick manufacturer at the moment can compete with the Chinese because they are using top-notch technologies. They can produce while you are waiting for your bricks.”
“Unfair competition”
While the new companies have gained market share due to competitive pricing and the ability to instantly supply customers, observers point to other factors contributing to the price gap.
There are concerns that many payments for bricks from the new firms are made in cash, which may not be fully captured for tax purposes. This potential for tax evasion, among other factors, allows them to operate at a lower cost base compared to the largely compliant traditional companies.
The bricks from new companies, however, have helped meet growing demand from both the public and private sectors.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter