About $4 million of the total investment will go towards fixing the flour milling plant

Tinashe Makichi Business Reporter
National Foods Holdings Limited plans to invest about $8,3 million towards upgrading its plants, acting chief executive Mr Mike Lashbrook has said.

Of the amount, about $4 million will go towards fixing the flour milling plant, Mr Lashbrook told an annual general meeting yesterday. The earmarked investment, he said, was meant to increase production efficiencies.

“We will continue to roll out our aggressive capex programme, upgrading our operating platform and we plan to spend $8,3 million in the coming year, the bulk of which will go towards fixing the flour platform,” said Mr Lashbrook.

He said $1 million will go towards the maize business.

Mr Lashbrook said the company closed the last quarter on a strong financial position with no borrowings. He said to date the company has bought about 20 000 tonnes of maize at the new price.

“We have bought quite a sizeable amount of maize to date and together with Grain Millers Association we will continue to work with authorities to find a sustainable solution the assured maize pricing.

“I would like to reassure our stakeholders that there is plenty of wheat and the past farming season we supported local wheat farmers to the tune of 5 000 hectares .We are targeting 25 000 tonnes of local wheat farming scheme,” said Mr Lashbrook.

In January this year, Natfoods former chief executive Mr Jeremy Brooke confirmed that work was ongoing at the mills after the arrival of equipment sourced from Swiss-based Buhler Group.

The move was part of the company’s expansion initiatives aimed at improving efficiencies.

The company invested $30 million towards the project which saw new flour mills coming in to replace the old ones.

NatFoods is expecting to supply around 60 percent of the country’s flour needs following the completion of the upgrading exercise. NatFoods, like many other Zimbabwe millers, has been grappling with acute shortage of wheat and maize grain as a result of a decline in the agricultural sector since 2000.