SMB’s bottling plant under renovation |30 March 2007
The bottling plant, located at Pointe Larue, produces around 3000 cartons of tomato sauce,
Production ceased in January of this year to allow for the renovation of the building as well as the upgrading of the existing facilities.
The work is now in an advanced stage and is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
John Toussaint, Unit Manager of SMB Agro, said that provisions were made to have enough stock to satisfy demand before they proceeded with the renovation work.
According to the unit manager, a delay in the renovation work however is causing the stock to run out much faster than had been anticipated.
“Originally we had planned a six-week shut down, but now due to a delay in the arrival of building materials, we have been set back by about five more weeks,” he noted.
Given the high demand for the products, a temporary unit was set up at the side of the Pointe Larue factory to allow the production of the main products such as tomato and chilli sauces to continue. At the moment production stands at 200 cartons a day.
Mr Toussaint said that SMB decided to renovate the factory and upgrade the facilities for numerous reasons.
“We are upgrading the existing facilities because we have plans to increase the level of production in order to satisfy increase in demand,” he said.
He also added that the move is aimed at meeting the increasingly high standards set by authorities such as the Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Health for food production.
It is expected that the renovation of the building as well as the upgraded equipment and machinery will cost SMB around R1 million.
All the renovation work on the building is being carried out by China State Construction.
Mr Toussaint announced that following the renovation and refurbishment, the public can expect production of a higher quality and the introduction of brand new products from SMB.
Upon completion of the project, it is expected that the bottling plant will have improved facilities. These will include hygiene facility at the entrance, spacious bottle preparation area, spice preparation room, spice extraction room, two cold rooms, spacious cook rooms with new cookers, filling and packing area, a laboratory and managers office.
The Bottling Plant came into operation in 1982.