Farai Mabeza, Senior Staff Writer 
DELTA Corporation (Delta) says consumer spending has continued to be buoyant, driven by stable US dollar pricing, improvements in wages and salaries across various sectors, and election related spending.
This comes as the beverages manufacturer reported that group revenue increased by 164 percent to $1,9 trillion in inflation adjusted terms compared to a growth of 879 percent in historical cost terms and nine percent in US dollar terms for the six months ended September 30, 2023.
“This reflects the volume growth across business units and the increased proportion of foreign currency sales to over 80 percent. There was an increase in the proportion of domestic transactions settled in foreign currency,” Delta chairman, Sternford Moyo, said in a statement accompanying the financial report for the period under review.
The earnings before interest and tax grew by 153 percent to $408 billion in inflation adjusted terms compared to 784 percent in historical cost terms and an indicative growth of 10 percent in US dollar terms.
“The Zimbabwean economy continues to benefit from mining activities, the marketing of commercial crops such as tobacco, government spending on infrastructure projects, and diaspora remittances.
“The spending around the harmonised elections held in August 2023 was relatively subdued, which may be attributed to limited funding, a compressed campaign period, and the strict regulations relating to gatherings,” Moyo said.
He said Delta continues to prioritise investments in production capacity to support volume growth and to improve customer service.
“We commissioned three flagship projects during this period, namely the lager beer glass packaging line at Southerton Brewery, a PET packaging line at Graniteside, and the Chibuku Super plant and packaging line at Harare the brewery.
“These investments are complemented by the injection of glass bottles, coolers, informal market equipment, and additional distribution fleet,” Moyo said.
“Afdis and Schweppes have also made significant investments in capacity.
“The Chibuku Super plant for United National Breweries is expected to be commissioned during the current financial year.”
Moyo described the operating environment in Zimbabwe as “complex, with no easy solutions to the numerous economic challenges such as the currency and inflation dynamics, coupled with a turbid political environment.”
“We anticipate better insights to come from the forthcoming 2024 National Budget statement. The focus is on protecting the balance sheet, optimum resource allocation, generating positive cashflows to fund the ongoing capital projects, and turning around the regional operations,” he said.
newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw
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