adminBULAWAYO-based leading cooking oil and soap manufacturer, United Refineries will invest more than $1 million in new machinery as it forges ahead with plans to introduce a wide range of products by next year.
United Refineries chief executive officer Mr Busisa Moyo said the company was set to re-introduce its Image and Vogue as well as its Bath and Basin soap range.
The company used to manufacture these soaps about a decade ago.
“We have also been working with research students from the University of Pretoria to come up with new formulations for our soaps that are designed for the African skin, both male and female.
“Vogue for example is going to be a beauty soap that’s top of the range, we still have our Image soap, which is a mass market soap but we have given it more value to the customer by remodelling it,” Mr Moyo said.
The company has also set its sights at introducing hygienic and carbolic, liquid and powder soaps as well as a wide range of detergents.
“We got into some partnerships (with some foreign companies), now we are in discussion about bringing in some equipment on the powdered soap side.
“We have been in touch with an Italian, South African and a Mauritian company to see what opportunities we can come up with. All in all these projects are about $1 million to $1,5 million when put together,” Mr Moyo said.
He said the company’s capacity utilisation had surged from 15 percent three years ago and was now hovering between 65 and 70 percent.
“We would like to exit this year around 80 to 90 percent and then in 2016, we will really like to bring in new products and being the kind of company that we have always wanted to be, that can rival some of the multinationals in the detergents, cooking oil and fats,” Mr Moyo said.
He said the company was looking forward to exploring the regional market by next year.
“We are not exporting any but with the new range of soaps that we are going to be coming with, the nine soaps will see our packaging both in English and Portuguese which is geared for the export market.
“We have been working with ZimTrade to help us develop a presence in places like Mozambique, Tete province, so we see opportunities there. We also see opportunities in Angola we would like to see our soap products going into those markets,” Mr Moyo said.
Online Reporter