The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
LEADING personal care and value added agro-products manufacturer, United Refineries Limited (URL) has revived its exports into the region as it forges ahead to grow its business.
URL chief executive officer Mr Busisa Moyo said the company has begun exporting a wide range of its products to Namibia while efforts are underway to explore other countries within the region.
The company was forced to halt exports at the turn of the millennium due to a myriad of challenges accelerated by the downturn of the country’s economy.
“We are exporting to Namibia and preparing for Malawi and Botswana in the next few weeks,” said Mr Moyo.
URL, which has since the turn of the millennium largely sustained its operations through manufacturing cooking oil and its laundry bar soap, has over the past few years re-introduced and launched a number of products. The company has been on a tremendous recovery path since securing credit in 2014 to refurbish machinery at its Bulawayo factory and reviving production of several brands.
Three years ago, the Bulawayo-based company re-introduced its three range of soaps namely Image, Vogue and Fresh Health Joy whose packaging was inscribed in English as well as Portuguese specifically aimed to target Portuguese speaking nations.
Late last year the company launched its new mayonnaise line under Roil Mayonnaise brand and an olive oil brand, where olive varieties are grown in the Eastern Cape. Early this year it added vegetable juice manufacturing to its wider product mix as part of its diversification strategy, which has also seen it recently introduce its own brand of mealie-meal.
Towards the end of last year, URL announced that it had expanded its range as a food and grocery products manufacturer, focusing on servicing local, regional as well as international markets.
“We are satisfied with our new market introductions and we are developing our market awareness and presence,” said Mr Moyo.
He, however, said efforts to introduce laundry powder soap were being stalled by lack of funding.
URL mooted investing more than $1 million towards the setting up of a laundry-powdered soap plant three years ago but has been hesitant in the face of stiff competition due to an influx of cheap imported products on the market.
“We are unable to get adequate foreign currency for our current offering so we are waiting for that to improve before adding any more new lines,” said Mr Moyo.
He said the company needs $4 million in working capital per month for it to operate at full throttle.
“On crushing we are (operating) at below 10 percent (capacity utilisation) due to low farming output of soya beans. On refining and soap production we are at 40-50 percent capacity due to currency constraints as we require $4 million of foreign currency per month to supply our markets,” said Mr Moyo.
The early crop assessment from Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Settlement issued on 9 May showed that the country produced only 60 000 tonnes of soya beans against a requirement of 384 000 tonnes per annum or 32 000 tonnes per month.
Zimbabwe requires about 300 000 tonnes, with oil expressers alone requiring 150 000 tonnes to meet their needs.
Last year, soya bean imports drained $172 million from the fiscus, with farmers only managing to produce 30 000 tonnes.
Mr Moyo said the listing of the company on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) was at an advanced stage.
“We have engaged a team of advisors and we have been officially invited to list the business by the ZSE,” he said.
URL is moving towards initial public offering grade as part of its efforts to grow its business.
Initial Public Offering (IPO) refers to a process of floating shares or going public in which a privately owned company is transformed into a public company. IPOs are usually used to raise new equity for a concerned firm or monetising investments of private shareholders such as company founders or private equity investors to enable easy trading of existing holdings.
