Almot Maqolo, Staff Writer 
DELTA Corporation (Delta) says it is moving forward with plans to reshape its Belmont plant in the country’s second-largest city, Bulawayo, over a period of two years in a bid to improve operational efficiencies.
The beverage-making company has been actively expanding its production capacity in the past few years and the efforts are beginning to pay off.
The group recently commissioned the larger beer glass packaging line at Southerton Brewery, a PET packaging line at Graniteside, the Chibuku Super plant at Harare Brewery and a Chibuku Super plant at Phelindaba Brewery in Pretoria.
At Afdis- its spirits-making subsidiary, it commissioned a new PET line, refrigeration equipment and a bottle washer whilst at Schweppes Zimbabwe it installed a high-capacity PET line among other key projects.
In a recent interview with The Financial Gazette, Delta’s finance director, Alex Makamure, stated that the group aims to spend close to 30 percent of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation on capital expenditure.
The amount translates to between US$30 million and US$40 million a year.
“The only big project that we are looking at in the future is a redo of our Belmont brewery, which needs to be redone. And that itself will be anywhere between US$15 million and US$20 million.
But we’re spreading it over two financial years,” Makamure said.
“We have had a few years where we were quite heavy as we were recapitalizing the business. So, we do not have significant major projects coming up.
But it’s more to cover those bottlenecks that are emerging.”
As for the financials, the group posted subdued results for the half year to September 30, 2024 affected by distortions in currency conversions.
Group revenue for the six months at US$389 million increased by 11 percent compared to the restated prior year figures.
The proportion of domestic sales undertaken in foreign currency declined from an average of 88 percent in the prior year to around 77 percent in the current period.
This shift is largely attributed to the introduction of the ZiG currency, the strict enforcement of dual pricing regulations and increased sales to the formal retail sector which largely trades in local currency.
Profit before tax stood at US$55,8 million whilst income (earnings before interest and tax) was at US$64,8 million.
The trading margins in the current period were partly affected by the under recovery on the sugar tax and the higher cost of imported maize.
As a result, the group with its associate Schweppes Zimbabwe paid an equivalent of US$20,5 million in sugar tax for the period February to September 2024.
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