Listed sugar processor, Star Africa Corporation’s comprehensive capital investment strategy and equipment maintenance at its subsidiary, Gold Star Sugars Harare resulted in a 24 percent increase in production for the company during the quarter ended June 2021.
Buoyed by the improved throughput, revenue for the refinery grew by 14 percent as the unit also made commendable inroads in market share growth and broad expansion of the brand’s footprint in the domestic market.
During the quarter under review, significant investment was made in re-tooling the unit through acceleration of replacement of critical machinery such as centrifugal machines, an effluent treatment plant and rehabilitation of the raw sugar warehouse.
“This is expected to result in significant increase in plant throughput and cost containment as the refinery continues to move towards highly efficient production,” said company secretary Aldo Musemburi.
At Country Choice Foods production, bolstered by the increased productivity at Gold Star Sugars and the new products development strategy in place, also took a positive trajectory as volumes produced exponentially increased by 69 percent from the prior year comparative quarter.
Volumes sold by the unit increased by 23 percent with strategies in place to ensure market penetration and success of the new products such as flavored icing and premixes.
“The unit has made significant traction in improving its production capacity with investments being made to purchase critical machinery such as an automated syrup filling machine and castor sugar packing machine in line with the Group’s re-tooling strategy for enhanced productivity across its operations,” said Musemburi.
The Group forecasts sustained improvement of major macroeconomic fundamentals into the next quarter and beyond as the trading environment becomes more favorable to both industry and consumers alike.
With the Group having expunged its legacy liabilities, focus will continue intensifying the capital expansion strategy bolstered by the foreign currency receipts obtained on the RBZ Foreign Currency Auction Trading System, the company said.
