Bottled water industry growth leads to expansion
Local bottled water supplier and contract packer Inhle Beverages has begun a campaign to increase its capacity with the installation of a new carbonated product filling line that includes a counter pressure filling machine, a carbonator, a pre-mixer, conveyors and an automatic shrink-wrapper.
The flavoured, plain carbonated and still bottled water industry is growing at a rapid rate in southern Africa, forcing suppliers such as Inhle beverages to expand their facilities.
"Although the market for sparkling and still bottled water has been huge internationally for many years, locally it has only seen enormous growth over the past ten years," says Inhle Beverages MD Niel Botha.
Inhle Beverages has experienced sustained growth of over 50% year-on-year and many highly regarded and well established brands in the market place are packed by the company.
Prior to the expansion of the current facility, production was at 7 000 bottles an hour. The new equipment has taken the company’s capacity up to 14 000 bottles an hour to accommodate the demand from the customer base. Botha says Inhle has invested an excess of R3-million in the new facility.
The expansion project of building a completely new bottling plant started in June 2007. The entire project was self-managed and seven different suppliers were used to complete the project.
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