Mutare Bottling Company, a Zimbabwe-based soft drinks bottler, has invested around $17m on a new Italian bottling plant line in the country.
The new plant line will replace the existing old lines in the facility, which are not cost efficient.
With a capacity to bottle 300ml and 1 000ml, the line is expected to supply around six million cases per year by improving production efficiencies at a low cost.
Mutare Bottling plant manager Erick Makarimayi was quoted by The Manica Post as saying, that the plant will also be able to reduce the unit cost of a case by at least 35% on account of gains in efficiencies, maintenance costs and yields predominantly.
"A lot of modifications were undertaken in order to keep the production lines running. This lapse in maintenance has made it very difficult to restore maximum performance of the lines because most spares are no longer available and the technology used on the machines is obsolete," he concluded.
Mutare Bottling, which is an authorized bottler of Coca-Cola products, currently employs 350 people.
