The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve recently in Marondera
LEADING baking firm, Proton Bakers has commended its Bulawayo market, which has kept them afloat with volumes going threefold from the target that they had initially set when they spread their wings into the city, in 2017.
The company has since invested in plant machinery and equipment worth more than US$3 million meant to facilitate the introduction of new products, expansion of capacity as well as enhancing plant efficacy as driven by the positive market forces.
Sunday News visited the company’s plant in Marondera, Mashonaland East Province last week, where the company’s chief operations officer, Mr Simba Bodzo, expressed gratitude towards the Bulawayo market, saying it has helped keep the company afloat during its difficult times.
Mr Simba Bodzo
“Our volumes have helped us break even regardless of operational costs. Bulawayo has been very receptive from day one. When we went into Bulawayo in 2017, it was a tough time coming from 2015 as a country and as a company. We needed some units to keep us afloat, just to be above the break-even point. Bulawayo was our first port of call and I am proud to say from day one, we achieved our targets.
“Right now, we are more than threefold what we were looking at that time. Bulawayo has been very receptive and they have kept us afloat from that time. In terms of the distance from Marondera, it is then compensated by the delivery vehicles. Bulawayo is so compact; you will be surprised that our trucks do a round trip of about 20 to 24 kilometres for deliveries. Already, that is a saving when you are going to fuel that very big truck,” said Mr Bodzo.
The Marondera based company is only delivering within Bulawayo Metropolitan Province where they sell over 40 000 units on a daily basis.
Mr Bodzo said their production capacity per day is over 200 000 loaves produced in three plants, where the biggest does 4 500 loaves per hour, the second biggest 2 400 loaves per hour and the smallest 1 600 loaves an hour. The capacity, plant efficiency and product portfolio is expected to increase following the purchasing of new plant machinery.
“On the bread side, we have purchased a machine in which we spent just over US$2.5 million. For the biscuits and cookies plant, the new machinery was US$600 000 and through it, we will be able to introduce new products this year, which I cannot be specific for now. Every year we introduce something for our customers
“We have not cut down on our workforce regardless of the coming in of new machinery, yes we brought in a packing machine, but the same people were absorbed somewhere else. So, they were moved from the cookies to the bread bakery. We have indeed invested a lot in equipment, but the majority of the equipment is not where we can say it is 100 percent automated. In terms of production people, we employ more than our two other counterparts,” said Mr Bodzo
He said one of their major challenge is power and currently they use two generators to power the plant, with plans in place to circumvent the challenge and go green.
“We have plans to convert to solar during the day time, but it does require a lot of capital expenditure. We have been looking at various options, including sourcing available funds from the European Union, which are being availed to local companies who need renewable energy.
“In the near future, we will convert some of our ovens from diesel heated to gas. On top of that, we have converted our boilers. We procured a diesel powered boiler and previously we were using a coal powered one,” said Mr Bodzo. — @nyeve14
