- Gold Star Sugar production surges 24%
- Revenue up by 14%
- Country Choice Foods sales surge 23%
Harare - Sugar manufacturer and marketer Star Africa Corporation has reported increased production volumes for the first fiscal quarter ended 30 June 2021, bolstered by a strong performance at Gold Star Sugars Harare.
Gold Star Sugars production volumes increased by 24% compared to the same period in the prior year owing to a capital investment strategy and equipment maintenance plan put in place.
Consequently, revenue for the division increased by 14% during the period under review compared to the same period last year driven by improved throughput as the unit made commendable inroads in market share growth and broad expansion of the brand’s footprint in the domestic market.
Investment was made in re-tooling the Gold Star Sugars 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 insignificant increase in plant throughput and cost containment as the refinery continues to move towards highly efficient production, “the company said.
As a result of improved productivity at Gold Star Sugars, the other unit, Country Choice Foods registered a 69% increase in production compared to the same period last year.
Volumes sold by Country Choice were up 23% with strategies in place to ensure market penetration and success of the new products such as flavoured 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 the company.
Going forward, the group expects sustained improvement of major macroeconomic fundamentals into the next quarter and beyond as the trading environment becomes more favourable to both industry and consumers alike and will leverage greatly on the improved trading conditions to increase both production and sales volumes.
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