Packaging

East African Packaging Solutions Ltd.

The Group established a unit in 1967 in Jinja to manufacture corrugated cardboard cartons for packaging of soap, horticultural produce, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, frozen fish, vegetables, etc. This factory produces corrugated cardboard (based on Kraft paper) to meet a substantial proportion of the entire requirement of the country for corrugated boxes. This unit also produces self-locking boxes (which are required by exporters of fish and vegetables).

The expanded plant includes a state-of-the-art corrugated cardboard carton manufacturing machine, four-colour automatic printer, die-cut and punching machine, creaser-slotter-corner cutting machine, 2-ply slitter and winder, high-quality stitching and gluing machines, etc. – which will give EAPSL an advantage over other manufacturers. The expansion capacity is 550 tons/month with a widened product range to meet increasing customer demand.

East African Glass

The Group’s long-term plan is to rehabilitate its old glass bottle plant in Kampala to a capacity of 18,000 tons of blown glassware per year (i.e. glass bottles for beer, soft drinks, processed foods, juices, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, etc.) and tableware. This facility will complement the Group’s glass plant in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania – Kioo Ltd.

At present, the Group is engaged in marketing and distribution of glass containers produced by Kioo Ltd. in Tanzania. This has helped the Group to develop and establish a sizable local market for these products. The Uganda unit is also engaged in distribution of glass containers to neighbouring countries e.g. Rwanda, Burundi etc.

On recommencement of its own production in Kampala, the Group will be able to cater to almost the entire demand for glass containers in Uganda and the neighbouring regions.

Coleus Crowns (Uganda) Ltd.

This unit, located at Kakira near Jinja, has the only plant in Uganda for producing metal crowns for the beverage industry. The current installed capacity is 540 million crowns per annum. Coleus Crowns aims to procure additional equipment in the near future that will increase its capacity to 1.6 billion crowns per annum. The plant is equipped to produce both PVC and PVC Free-lined crowns. As part of its modernisation programme, this unit installed world class crown manufacturing equipment from Italy along with state-of-the-art vision inspection equipment to ensure the production of excellent quality crowns. Presently, this company caters largely to the domestic demand for such metal closures. The products are used by breweries, soft-drink manufacturers, local wineries and other bottlers.

The Group has established a joint venture (on 50:50 basis) for this business with Coleus Packaging Pty. Ltd., which is a subsidiary of South African Breweries and the largest crown producer in South Africa. This joint venture is undertaking further investment in the plant with a business plan that calls for the JV company to become the dominant crown supplier not only in Uganda but in the region. This venture will also explore possibilities of marketing its products to bottlers in neighbouring countries, e.g. Rwanda, Burundi and D R Congo.