Beverage maker Delta Corporation on Thursday reported that its half year revenue was up by 37 percent in the first six months of the year but rounded on government for lack of consultations on major policy shifts.
Delta said latest policy pronouncements by the central bank and Treasury — to raise the tax on electronic transactions to 2 cents per dollar from a flat 5 cents and reintroducing Foreign Currency Accounts — were contrary to its earlier promises as the latter forced the market to reject the surrogate bond note currency and transactions involving local RTGS funded accounts.
“Post the end of the reporting period, the fiscal and monetary policy pronouncements have been dampened by the currency policy statements which seem to contradict the previous undertakings by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe on the multicurrency framework,” it said in a trading update for the half year to September 30.
“In addition the 2% transaction tax took both business and consumers by surprise, raising policy risks and undermining market confidence. Government and regulators are urged to engage stakeholders ahead of major policy pronouncements in order to maintain market confidence.”
In the period under review, revenue increased by 33% for the quarter and 37% for the half year, driven by higher sales in the beer business.
“Lager beer volume grew by 52% over prior year for the quarter and is up 54% for the six months,” said Delta.
“There are some frictional shortages of brands and packs occasioned by the limited production capacity and raw material supply issues.”
Sorghum beer volumes grew by 9% above prior year for the quarter and 2% for the six months while there was an improvement in the supply of packaging materials for Chibuku Super.
However, Sparkling beverages sales fell 14% compared on the prior year for the quarter but grew by 3% for the six months, affected by shortages of foreign currency which led to extended periods of production stoppages and out of stock situations.
“The only factory that is not running as we speak is the Graniteside soft drinks plant and two Bulawayo plants that do soft drinks because there is not concentrate, so raw materials is the only issue,” company secretary Alex Makamure said on Thursday.
“The soft drinks factory, like we have always said, we only run when we receive the main material which is concentrate from South Africa. If we get money from the Reserve Bank, we bring in a consignment and run the factory and that is what we have been doing for the last 18 months. As of this week, there have been no deliveries of soft drinks because we do not have the concentrate when we get them we will run the factories and deliver. We will be getting concentrates over the weekend and next week the factories will be running.”
It’s Zambian subsidiary, National Breweries Plc recorded a volume growth of 13%, in response to the volume recovery initiatives focused on packs and competitive pricing.
- The Source
