Durban - South African Breweries (SAB) says the expansion of its Prospecton plant in Durban has created jobs.
SAB regional Corporate Affairs director Kgosi Mogotsi said that in total SAB had invested more than R11 billion in the country in the past two years.
“In 2022 we invested about R5.9bn in South Africa, of which R924 million was invested in KZN. In 2023 we invested about R5.8bn, and about R240m of that was invested in KZN. This investment was used in the expansion of the Prospecton plant and created 40 permanent jobs, and 750 jobs during the construction.”
Mogotsi added that the expansion was crucial as the Prospecton plant was the third biggest brewery in Africa.
“We have 572 employees at Prospecton, and the expansion was necessary. The beer industry is crucial to the economy, research we have done indicates that R1 in every R79 of GDP spent comes from the beer value chain. It also indicates that one in every 66 jobs comes from the beer value chain.”
Ra’idah Vaid, plant manager at the Prospecton brewery, said they were in the final stages of the expansion project.
“We can now deliver flavoured alcoholic beverages, we are delivering three additional brands, which are Flying Fish, Brutal Fruit and Smirnoff.
“We hope to expand our portfolio even further so that we can provide the KZN market with products we were previously only getting from the Gauteng region.”
Vaid added that it had not been an easy three years for the plant, which had to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, 2021 July unrest and the floods in April 2022.
“I have been the plant manager for the past three years and have experienced all three catastrophes. The worst for us was the April 2022 floods as 1.6 metres of water came into our plant. Most of our equipment sits at the ground floor level, so it took us three weeks before we could pull up our first production line. It took us a further six months before we were running all lines, and many months before we were running back at full capacity.”
EThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, who visited the Prospecton plant yesterday, said he was pleased that the company continued to expand its investment in the city.
“Today we are witnessing the expansion of a plant that is currently employing over 500 people. This company has been a household name, not only in Durban, but in the country, since its inception 127 years ago. Of these years of operation, 49 have been spent in Durban nurturing small businesses in the form of distributors and creating much-needed jobs.”
Kaunda said it was important to visit businesses to understand their challenges.
“In this way we can intervene and resolve their challenges. We want to commend SAB for assisting us with their engineering team to help us restore services to the South Durban Basin during the April floods.”
