By Kitts D. Mabonga
As the East African community (EAC) trade and investment opportunities widen its operation spaces, more manufacturers are expanding their horizons to cover the entire region and maximize profits despite the stiff market competition trends.
Among such investors is the Crown Beverages Limited (CBL) the renown Uganda’s oldest beverages company bottling a range of carbonated soft drinks including Pepsi, Mountain Dew, Mirinda Fruity, Mirinda Orange, Mirinda Pineapple, Mirinda Green Apple, Evervess Tonic and Nivana Water in three varieties namely, Tangerine, Strawberry, still and sparkling. The products are available in returnable glass bottles and plastic/PET.
The company has since added new high end brands such as 7 up soda, Aquafina water as well as Sting energy drink among other bottled products.
Dr. Maggie Kigozi, a top director with the company told the East African Gazette yesterday at Kabira country club during an exclusive interview that they have carefully studied the market trends and come up with a new plant expansion program given the surging demand for their products on the market.
She revealed how they have secured four brand new state of art automated bottling machines that shall bottle both soft drinks and high quality mineral water products.
“Two of the four new lines shall be assembled in Kenya. We are running a plant to cover the production of both soft drinks and mineral water alongside energy drinks while the other two shall be assembled in Uganda,” noted Kigozi.
“In the good spirit of the EAC integration, our company has moved into the Kenyan market by setting up two bottling lines to step up new production capabilities capable of enabling us to supply these products into the expanded EAC and far regional markets given its superior quality,” she observed.
She said the other two lines shall be assembled here in the country (Uganda) to beef up the current production capacity such that we can position ourselves to export more both Mirinda fruity and PineApple as well as 7 Up soda products whose current sales are trending highly as well as the newly launched Aquafina bottled water respectively.
She thanked her board members including Amos Nzeyi for accepting to work together as a team whose efforts have helped them carry out strategic market research which has effectively enabled them to penetrate new markets within the EAC member states like the DR Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan and Kenya among others.
In 2023, the company successfully packaged and marketed more than 85 million crates of soft drinks. With the ongoing assembly of new production facilities, the projected production capacity for the upcoming year is expected to reach 100 million crates.
She emphasized the fact that the company is also the official sponsor of the Uganda Cranes national team, as well as other sports like basketball and cricket, in which the country is excelling on the international stage.
Kigozi praised the President of Uganda Gen (RTD) Kaguta Yoweri Museveni for establishing a purposeful conducive atmosphere that has facilitated the establishment of both domestic and foreign investments in the nation.
She emphasized that such investments have not only generated additional employment opportunities for the citizens but have also contributed to the influx of Direct Foreign Income (DFI) in the form of dollars.
Community outreaches
The company has also actively participated in numerous youth programs within the entertainment and sports industries. Throughout the years, they have sponsored events such as the Buzz Leavers and Teens Awards, the Hip-hop Awards, and individual artistes’ album launches.
Pepsi-Cola International’s 2015 partnership with the UEFA Champions League has seen Crown Beverages Limited taking part in one of the world’s largest annual sporting events with well over 53% global interest.
The company also runs a campaign every year where rewards Pepsi consumers through a multimillion countrywide promotion.
In addition to football, they have been involved in other sports activities and tournaments in the world of golf, university soccer, cricket, basketball and motor rall among others.
“We have in the past been a part of the University Football League, Beach soccer, Cricket League and many Golf Tournaments. The brands will continue to support sports programs at every opportunity,” Kigozi noted.
Another essential aspect of their corporate social responsibility is health, where they have been collaborating with the Uganda Red Cross Society (URC) for years in their countrywide blood donation campaigns.
On March 27, 2021, CBL was honored with a humanitarian award for our contributions to the society in 2020.
In partnership with the PepsiCo Foundation, they handed over a cheque of USD 200,000 and brand new 4-Wheel double Cabin pick-up to the Head of the National Task force Hon. Mary Karooro Okurut on 10th April, 2020 in support of the President’s call to fight the CoronaVirus.
The history of CBL
Crown Beverages Limited was initially a state-owned parasternal under the name Lake Victoria Bottling Company Limited which started its operations in early 1950’s and was privatized in 1993 under the United Nation’s Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of privatization.
The new owners named it Crown Bottlers Limited on acquisition from the government with all shareholders who acquired it from the government being indigenous Ugandans.
In 1997, the owners of Crown Bottlers Limited entered a joint venture with International Pepsi Cola Bottling Investments Limited (IPCBI) from South Africa in which IPCBI acquired 51% shares and assumed management of the company.
In October 2001 the Ugandan shareholders acquired the majority shares (51%) and assumed full management of the company enabling them as shareholders to carry out radical restructuring measures and appointed a new management team that has over the years overseen the recovery of the company through proper corporate governance.
Crown Beverages Limited is a franchisee, bottling all its products under authority of Pepsi International INC Purchase NY.
With headquarters situated in Nakawa industrial area in Kampala and employs over 1,000 personnel both directly and indirectly
The company has witnessed continuous growth for the last six years and is currently the market leader of Ugandan Carbonated Soft Drinks industry which now seeks to have its products widely available.
It employs an intensive distribution approach with 57 Contact Distributors and over 100 depots, to have its beverages available in every district in Uganda as well as allowing products to be available in well over 100,000 retail outlets that vend carbonated soft drinks in Uganda.
International Reputation status
In 2019, Crown Beverages Limited beat 200 other companies world over, to win the PepsiCo global bottler of the year award, the highest annual regional recognition conferred upon PepsiCo’s best bottling partner from PepsiCo Europe and Africa.
The collaboration of a supportive board, a collaborative PepsiCo franchise team and a motivated, innovative, and fast thinking team of employees have seen the factory grow from the Nakawa plant to the new bigger supplementary plant in Kakungulu that guarantees to boost production capacity.
Crown Beverages Limited also received the excellent taxpayer award for the financial year 2017/18 in its recognition as a top taxpayer by Uganda Revenue Authority.
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