South Africa’s Nampak, leading manufacturer of beverage, food and non-perishable packaging, announced plans to open glass bottle factory in Nigeria and Ethiopia with an outlay of USD 155 million, according to Reuters.

The openings of the plants come as part of Nampak’s strategy of generating half of its profit outside its home market in five years.

Nampak has been expanding in Africa to balance weakness at home where clients in manufacturing industry are cutting output due to subdued consumer demand.

Andre de Ruyter, Chief Executive Officer at Nampak, said the bottle plant in Ethiopia would cost USD 65 million and Nigeria’s USD 90 million.

According to Ruyter, the Ethiopian factory, which would have the capacity to produce as much as 30,000 tons of glass per year, would have no shortage of consumers.

De Ruyter said: "The Ethiopian beer market is growing extremely fast and virtually all of their glass is imported at the moment."

The plant in Nigeria, where Nampak already runs a beverage can business, would produce 50,000 tons of glass per year.

Source: af.reuters.com