ETHIOPIA – Nared General Trading, an Ethiopian pharmaceuticals import and wholesale company has invested US$5.01 million (140 million Br) to set up a new water bottling company in Chacha Wereda, Amhara Regional State.

According to AddisFortune, the plant was constructed at a cost of US$2.15 million on 20,000Sqm land and is expected to be fully operational in two months.

The facility will have the capacity to produce 10,000 bottles of water an hour under the brand name Wub Water.

Nared has purchased three sets of machinery from a Chinese company engaged in the manufacturing of plastic, die casting and water bottling machinery, Haitian Group.

The two machines will produce PET preform, which will be heated and shaped into plastic bottles while the third line will fill, cap and package 17,000 water bottles an hour.

“The excess bottles produced will be sold in the market,” said Banteyrga Kebede, project coordinator of Wub Water.

It is expected to employ between 162 to 200 workers, supplying the market with half, one and two litre bottles of water sourced from a water well.

Before its launch into the market, the company is seeking to obtain a conformity assessment certificate from the Ethiopian Conformity Assessment Enterprise and a certificate from the Food, Medicine, Health Care Administration & Control Authority.

“We will take the product to the Enterprise for laboratory tests before we commence production,” Banteyrga told Fortune.

The company is also planning to recycle used plastic bottles and manufacture soft drinks in the long run.

It joins 70 other water bottling companies operating in the country that produce 3.5 billion litres of water a year.

These cater to just 5% of total consumption, something that has seen a number of upcoming bottlers in the country.

One of the water bottlers, One Water unveiled plans to triple its capacity with two new plants manufacturing plastic bottles and caps to take advantage of the consumption gaps.

Ethiopia’s neighbour, Kenya has 600 bottling companies that provide 37.7% of the country’s consumption.