South Africa: Nestle to invest $200 million over five years

Nestle has announced a five year plan that will see it invest ZAR 2 billion ($200 million) over the next five years to upgrade facilities at its production plants in South Africa.

Announcing the strategy in a statement, Nestle said the new investment would be focused on capacity building, general capital refurbishment, biomass boilers and converting its Mossel Bay dairy factory to a water neutral one. The new investment was in line with Nestle South Africa’s existing investment plan, it said.

Newly appointed as Nestle’s Chairman and Managing Director for South Africa, Ian Donald commented: “Nestlé believes in Africa as an investment destination and part of our ongoing investment will include increasing capacity for our coffee factory in Estcourt, Kwa-Zulu Natal with the aim of creating a coffee hub for the region”.

Speaking to Reuters, Mr Donald added that Nestle was considering establishing a manufacturing presence in other African countries such as Ethiopia and Mozambique. “We’re being realistic with sub-Saharan Africa. We realise that we going to have to walk before we run, so, we are still building businesses that should contribute significantly to group revenue in the future,” he said.

Source: Nestle / Reuters