ZAMBEEF Products will this year invest US$1 million in expansion of its network of retail outlets in Lusaka and the Copperbelt. And the company is considering expanding operations to the Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), company chief executive officer Carl Irwin has said.

Mr Irwin said in Lusaka that the company was considering exploiting the huge market in the DR Congo province which would be done through operations of butcheries in Shoprite Stores when the African giant supermarket opens outlets there. “Shoprite will be going into Congo and we will look at going there with them. Katanga has been providing a strong market for South African products in recent past, and we want to benefit from that market as Zambeef and as a Zambian company,” he said.

Apart from the butchery franchising agreement with Shoprite, Zambeef Products would also consider establishing a depot in that part of the DRC. Zambeef Products is happy with its investments in West Africa where it has been operating as Master Meats in Nigeria and Ghana and where it launched a pork processing plant in 2008.

Mr Irwin said the company was grateful to Shoprite for the partnership they were engaged in and Zambeef was still interested in more opportunities in that market and would be looking at expanding operations through that arrangement.

Mr Irwin said the company would open five new outlets on the Copperbelt and work would start next month. “We look to expand our network especially on the Copperbelt where we are going to have five new outlets and in Lusaka. These outlets are going to be spacious and will be selling all our products,” he said.

Zambeef Products operates a pool of subsidiaries which include Zambeef Retailing Limited, Zamleather Limited, Zampalm Limited, Zamanita Limited, and Master Pork Limited.In West Africa, Zambeef has 90 per cent stake in Master Meats (Ghana) Limited and 67 per cent in Master Meat and Agro Production Company of Nigeria.

Source: African Finacial Markerts

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