BCC to privatise Ingwebu Breweries Ingwebu plant premises

Ingwebu-plant premises

Oliver Kazunga, Senior Business Reporter
BULAWAYO City Council (BCC) has started implementing a programme to privatise Ingwebu Breweries in order to turn around the local authority’s commercial undertaking.

In a statement, BCC said in the last quarter of 2016 it engaged a consultant with the objective to recommend to the shareholders modalities of converting  Ingwebu Breweries into a financially sound private company.

The local authority signed a contract engaging a consultant who produced a report which is now guiding council on the best way to turnaround Ingwebu.
BCC said the consultants objectives were also to:

“Assess how Ingwebu Breweries can be developed to secure long term financial viability, advise the shareholder on the best sources of capital investment that will ensure growth of the business and proposing a practical and implementable business model that can achieve the above while offering the best value for money.”

It said in the past Ingwebu has failed to access funding from financiers who have questioned the legal status of the brewery.

The council said the major thrust of the privatisation of the brewery was to protect the local authority and stop accumulation of further debts.

“It is also to allow Ingwebu to access new streams of funding from independent investors,” it said.

Last year, BCC announced that Ingwebu was struggling to operate profitably and was not contributing any revenue to the local authority.

The brewery has been facing viability problems in the face of falling demand for its products and the high cost of operating its antiquated machinery.

Ingwebu Breweries was established in 1946 as a department of BCC and in 1996, council created a wholly-owned business entity called Bulawayo

Municipal Commercial Undertaking trading as Ingwebu Breweries and Aisleby and Goodhope Farms with the local authority as the sole shareholder.

This was meant to allow BCC to concentrate on its core activities.

@okazunga

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