SOUTH AFRICA – Tiger Brands Limited, a South African packaged goods company, finds it suitable to enter new markets, including the carbonated mixer market and the energy drinks market, which saw the company launching its Rose’s carbonated mixers and an energy drink called Boost, in October.

Tiger Brands beverages MD Ismail Nanabhay said the company has been investing heavily into its existing production lines at the Roodekop beverage manufacturing facility, in Germiston, with some production lines being fully and semi-automated.

He gave an example of the facility’s fully automated Energade production line producing about 30 000 bottles an hour.

The Roodekop site has been producing millions of liters a month of its well-known brands in pre-mix and ready-to-drink formats since 2001.

Tiger Brands plans to invest more than R20 million in expanding its raw materials storage warehouse.

The company will also install solar power at the facility as part of a broader Tiger Brands group solar rollout programme at 35 of its manufacturing sites across South Africa.

Tiger Brands said the rollout will be part of a multi-million-rand investment to have 65% of the business’ electricity requirements at a manufacturing level across South Africa sourced from sustainable energy solutions by 2030. 

The rollout will involve the procurement of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the C&I solar sector and will also include other renewable energy options.

The first 4 sites will be Tiger Brands’ Henneman Mill in the Free State, King Foods in the North West, and its Beverages and Home and Personal Care manufacturing plants in Gauteng.

Solar power generation at these sites is expected to go online between the last quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2023.

Solar at the first 4 sites will have an installed capacity of about 2 MW of power, providing at least a third of their power usage.

Tiger Brands’ goal is to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 45% against science-based targets by 2030, with a target of net zero emissions by 2050.

In its year-end results for September 2022, South Africa’s largest food producer delivered robust annual results with earnings up 51%, despite tough trading conditions and significant input cost inflation.

The company highlighted its total revenue from continuing operations increased by 10% to R34 billion (US$1.98 billion), boosted by price inflation of 11% and a marginal overall volume decline of 1%.

Tiger Brand said it was able to raise selling prices by 11% in its 2022 year, although it did experience a slight dip in volumes in its domestic business.

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