Agribusiness giant shares its passion for football

LUSAKA, ZAMBIA– Zambeef Products is sharing its love of Zambian football across the country from today with free screenings of its K1.5 million blockbuster football movie that captures the passion, excitement and national pride of the Zambian football team.

The award-winning e18hteam movie, which is sponsored by Zambeef, will be screened in major towns across the country throughout August and September and captures Zambian football’s most defining moments – from the lows of the 1993 Gabon air crash to the highs of the 2012 AFCON.

“When we were first approached to sponsor the movie, Zambeef saw it as an opportunity to contribute towards the preservation of a part of our history for future generations. This movie goes to the heart of the nation’s love of football and we wanted to ensure the moment was not lost in time,” said Joint Chief Executive Officer Carl Irwin.

The “Zambeef in your Town” tour, which calls on all football loving Zambians to get their “Dibili on”, also features performances by local artists and will showcase the film from Kitwe to Livingstone and from Mongu to Chipata.

The company has supported football teams paying in leagues and at community level, helping to groom footballers at the grassroots including AFCON 2012 squad member James Chamanga.

“Being a proudly Zambian company ourselves, Chipolopolo football is as much a part of us as is the ‘nyama’. We have sponsored community programmes and TV coverage of several of the team’s games and been their official meat providers while in camp” said Dr Irwin.

“The whole idea behind the e18hteam documentary is to remember a moment in time when Zambia showed the world the best of itself. Here we have a nation that has been in mourning for 18 years over the loss of its national football team and just like a flash back, we’re back on the same field, playing the game that we love so much. And suddenly it’s like the match all those years ago never ended and it continued before our very eyes! When the final whistle blows; you know beyond anything that this was one those moments in history where everything came to a standstill and held its breath as if this was the moment everything existed for up until this time and when it is past you’re like ‘yes, that was it’ even if you couldn’t quiet say what it was,” said Dr Irwin.

“The film is for the football enthusiast, the coach wanting to inspire a new generation of young players, young, old, men, and women; simply put, it is for everyone for calls themselves a proud Zambian, so come out in numbers and show your support for the team, because this, this has always been our game, no matter the outcome!”

Zambeef’s own Zamleather division makes the popular Kaleza Z-12 model leather football boots, the first of its kind to be locally designed and manufactured in Zambia. It is also home to the Alive & Kicking employment-generation project, which makes quality leather soccer balls that carry health messages and are distributed to underprivileged teams nationwide.

The e18hteam is a co-production by Zambia’s Ngosa Chungu and her Spanish counterpart Juan Rodriguez-Brisco and has been internationally recognised. It was recently showcased this year at Cannes in France. The sponsorship by Zambeef is the country’s largest local corporate sponsorship ever to have been given towards an arts project.

The Zambeef in your Town Dibili roadshow kicks off in Kabwe today (Thursday, August 6) and will hit Chingola on Friday, August 7 then Kitwe on Saturday, August 8.

The team will be in Kaoma on August 14; Mongu on August 15; Choma on August 21; Livingstone on August 22; Chipata on August 29 and Mansa on September 5.
Follow the tour on the Zambeef Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Zambeef and Twitter @ZambeefPlc or with the hashtag #ZambeefInYourTown.

-Ends-

About Zambeef Products Plc
Zambeef Products Plc is one of the largest integrated agribusinesses in Zambia and the region. The group is principally involved in the production, processing, distribution and retailing of beef, chicken, pork, milk, dairy products, eggs, stock feed and flour. The group also has large row cropping operations (principally maize, soya beans and wheat), with approximately 15,700 hectares of row crops grown under irrigation and a further 8,000 hectares of rain-fed/dry-land crops planted each year producing 120,000 tons of grain annually. The group is also in the process of rolling out its West Africa expansion in Nigeria and Ghana, as well as developing a palm project in Zambia. It slaughters more than 60,000 beef cattle, 5.5 million chickens and 54,000 pigs per annum, while also processing 11 million litres of milk and producing 110,000 tons of stockfeed and 48 million eggs per year. The company has 138 retail outlets throughout Zambia and West Africa, along with four wholesale depots.
More information is available at www.zambeefplc.com.