The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
WHILE most companies are closing down, retrenching or scaling down, bread manufacturer, Baker’s Inn, is on an expansion drive with a target to grow to 50 percent market share in the next 12 months and extend its footprint in the region.
In an interview, chief executive officer Mr Ngoni Mazango said the company which is looking to grow its business through customer oriented strategies has a number of promotions lined up aimed at aiding the company to reach the new target.
Baker’s Inn enjoys about 44 percent market share in the confectionery industry.
“To reach our target of 50 percent, we will be rolling out a number of promotions like the Buy and Win campaign that we just launched as well as the ‘I am Baker’s Inn’ internal promotion,” said Mr Mazango.
He said the company is employing more than 2 000 workers at a time when most businesses are scaling down and investing in replacing ageing equipment at its plants as well as acquiring new vehicles.
Mr Mazango said the company is setting up two plants in Bulawayo and Harare to increase bread production.
Speaking on the $6 million Bulawayo factory, Southern region general manager Mr Felix Vazhure said the new plant which will be completed by February next year, will give them an extra 100 000 loaves per day.
Mr Vazhure revealed that Bulawayo was producing between 130 000 to 150 000 loaves a day but this was not enough to meet local demand.
“We are not able to meet demand for the region although we are operating at 100 percent capacity hence the company is moving bread from Harare to Bulawayo to increase supply.
The new plant, once complete, will ensure that we are self sufficient and able to meet demand as we will now be producing at least 250 000 loaves a day,” said Mr Vazhure.
He said the company as a whole would be producing 800 000 loaves a day exceeding the 600 000 loaves a day target that was set for end of the year.
On the pie plant in Harare, Mr Vazhure said the business had taken off like a wild fire with production increasing from 20 000 to 100 000 pies a day.
He said at the moment there were no plans to open a pie plant in Bulawayo as the Harare plant was able to meet national demand although he added that as demand increases plans would be put in place to set an additional plant in Bulawayo.
“We want to consolidate our business locally first and be able to distribute locally before expanding to the region but plans are there to penetrate the Sadc region maybe before the end of 2017,” said Mr Vazhure.
Baker’s Inn launched its second Buy and Win promotion that will run from 23 September to 25 November nationwide.
According to sales manager Mr Paul Chimboya, the promotion was now bigger with the prizes increasing from nine to 11 VW Polo cars, $50 000 cash prizes, refrigerators among other prizes.
“For us, we have learnt that customer oriented aggression wins the day in a competitive environment and we are now the leading manufacturers of bread through our partnership with our consumers,” said Mr Chimboya.
The launch was attended by CZI president Mr Busisa Moyo who was the guest of honour who commended Baker’s Inn for its continued efforts as a leading manufacturer.
