The Sunday News
Judith Phiri, Business Reporter
LEADING manufacturing firm, United Refineries Limited (URL) which recently introduced Roil Self Service Dispensers at various in-store locations around Bulawayo in a drive to help protect the environment by reducing plastic waste, is set to roll out the initiative nationwide and regionally.
The company said customers could now fill up Roil cooking oil in supermarkets from a dispenser at the following retail outlets, Lions Renkini, Lions Lobengula Street, Zapalala, Greens, Cooland and Oceans Belmont.
“You can now fill up on your favourite Roil cooking oil at various in-store locations at our Roil Self-Service Dispensers. All you need is a clean and hygienic empty container and you fill up. So join us in this #GreenInitiative…,” said URL.
Responding to questions from Sunday News Business, URL chief executive officer (CEO), Mr Busisa Moyo said in the near future they were to roll out
“Firstly, reducing plastic usage is critical, our industry produces close to 100 million plastic bottles annually and this hurts the environment and marine life.
“Livestock as well is also affected because plastics are not biodegradable anything that reduces them including recycling is positive. Secondly, our initiative is motivated by the need to pass on savings on packaging to the consumer,” he said.
“Our maximum, for now, is 5 litres that customers can fill up at Roil Self Service Dispensers. Currently this initiative is available at six instore locations and we are working on expanding in the city because we want this to be the norm or the bulk of access, while we also have national and regional plans in our expansion drive.”
In an explanatory video on how to use the dispenser, URL said customers place their container under the nozzle, select quantity from options of 750 millilitres (ml), 2 litres (l) and 5l, they then press start, once filled they get a bar-code and stick it on the container and proceed to pay at the counter.
As a brand, Roil Cooking oil has a rich history spanning over eight decades and is one of the leading cooking oil brands in the country.
URL said: “Roil is known for it’s quality, thickness, no cholesterol content and is now fortified with Vitamin A and Vitamin D3. Roil is currently the only cooking oil certified by the Standard Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ), a great seal of approval for a brand that has managed to remain fresh and relevant for 80 years.”
Commenting on the initiative, a number of customers have said it was a great initiative being rolled out by the company and a step in the right direction as organisations push to be profitable and sustainable at the same time.
“Sustainability also involves taking care of the environment that enables an organisation to be able to be productive. Well done United Refineries Limited,” said one customer, Collin Banda.
In other countries, the cooking oil self-service dispenser is also known as a cooking oil automated teller machine (ATM) used for dispensing liquid cooking oil, while some models have a capacity of 20 litres.
Others have a programmable logic control (PLC)/controller that performs all the technical functions of the machine such as resetting of the machine’s password, setting the prices, checking daily and weekly sales and processing the sales as per the customer’s purchase.
