Nigerian firm inches closer to setting up cans factory in Kajiado
Coastal Bottlers, one of Coca-Cola’s franchises, opened a Sh450m canning plant in April 2012 with capacity to produce 30,000 canned sodas per hour. FILE
What you need to know:
GZ Industries has submitted the Environmental Impact Assessment report to Nema.
Firm plans to build a cans factory in Sultan Hamud to cost Sh1.3 billion. This is part of the Sh8.6 billion or $100 million total investment intended at the factory.
On completion, the factory will have capacity to make 2.4 billion cans annually.
Nigerian GZ Industries Tuesday inched closer to setting up a multi-billion canning factory in Kajiado after publishing its environmental assessment report.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which has been submitted to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema), indicates that work on the company’s factory in Sultan Hamud was to begin last April and should be completed by the end of 2015.
The Lagos-based firm said construction of the structure will cost at least Sh1.3 billion.
This is part of the Sh8.6 billion or $100 million total investment intended at the factory.
“The amount excludes capital investments and other expenses like staff salaries, training programme for new employees outside of Kenya, payments to government and county institutions, etc,” GZ Industries (Kenya) project manager Dan Kertes told the Business Daily in a statement.
On completion, the factory will have capacity to make 2.4 billion cans annually.
The EIA report said that GZ Industries has already found customers for its products.
“Currently, the company has a ready market for their end-products with industries such as Coca-Cola, East African Breweries Ltd and Sierra Beverage Company in Tanzania, among others,” said the EIA report.
Beverage makers are opting for cans over glass, especially for the export market, as a cost cutting measure.
East African Breweries has said it will package beer for the export market in cans to save on losses incurred in transportation of empty bottles and breakages.
Coastal Bottlers, one of Coca-Cola’s franchises, opened a Sh450 million canning plant in April 2012 with capacity to produce 30,000 canned sodas per hour.
GZ Industries’ factory will also export cans to the regional market.
“The GZ Industries Kenya Ltd aluminium cans factory aims to be part of these strategies by investing in Kenya in order to reach the Eastern African market as well as reduce the cost of importing beverage cans from oversees while improving the manufacturing sector of Kenya,” said the EIA study report.
The manufacturing sector has been attracting fresh investments since the beginning of the year.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has committed Sh8.4 billion to manufacturing plants in the cement and consumer goods industries since the beginning of the year.
