ETHIOPIA – Ethiopian liquor producing company, Ponu Monu has invested US$200,000 in establishing a new aluminium and plastic bottle cap factory in Addis Ababa.
According to Addis Fortune, the investment was part of an expansion project to meet the growing demand for the materials in both the local and export markets.
Equipped with machines imported from China, the factory produces three million bottle-caps of different sizes a day and will create 60 employment opportunities.
Sitting on a 2,500Sqm plot of land, it targets to serve the pharmaceutical and liquor producers with India and China being the main source of its raw materials.
“We wanted to minimise the cost to import the caps for the liquors that we produce,” said Abraham Tilahun, major shareholder and manager of the company.
The major shareholders in the company are Mehul Gautam and Rajendar Gautam.
Establishment of the new factory was fuelled by the need to reduce costs as the company used to spend US$120,000 annually, excluding shipping costs and taxes, to import caps.
The company said since the expansion, it received offers from 20 liquor and manufacturing companies interested in ordering their caps locally.
Ponu Monu is a producer of seven types of liquor, including ouzo and gin under the brand name Marry, which contain alcohol content levels of between 24% to 43%.
The company also produces a whiskey called Merry Cane scotch, which has a 43% alcohol content and comes in 750ml bottles.
Ponu Monu, co-owned by a Canadian businessman, also imported a new recycling machine to utilize a mixture of 80% burnt oil and 20% gasoline to run a boiler machine that saves around 2,000 litres of gasoline a month.
Apart from local supplies, liquor manufacturers import caps and corks from Spain, India and Egypt.
Other players in the bottling caps and corks in Ethiopia are CGF-Crown Cork & Aluminum Cap Manufacturing Factory, Ethiopian Crown Cork & Can Manufacturing, Daylight Applied Technologies and Metal Crown.
The company plans to open another factory for the production of juices and milk in the town of Gelan in Oromia Regional State.
