THE Cold Storage Company (CSC) is ready to commence
upgrades on its key infrastructure at an estimated cost of more than US$100
million following completion of a preliminary engineering report, a senior
official said yesterday.
The revival of the country’s largest beef processor and
marketer is expected to create more than 600 jobs at its Bulawayo headquarters
alone.
Cabinet has approved a US$400 million joint venture deal between
CSC and Boustead Beef (Pvt) Ltd. The facility will be spread over the next
three to four years.
In an interview yesterday, Boustead Beef Zimbabwe managing
director Mr Nick Havercroft said engineering work at their Bulawayo abattoirs
was about to begin.
“We are refurbishing everything and we’ve done an
engineering report and now we are about to commence the engineering work and
it’s a five months project because that business hasn’t worked for 15 years so
the major repairs and maintenance have to be done,” he said.
“We have basically completed the engineering report and
have signed the contract, ordered the equipment and we know what we need so
there is a lot going on.
“More than US$100 million will be spent on the engineering
works.”
The engineering undertaking at CSC, Mr Havercroft said, is
a massive programme that will involve the rehabilitation of boilers, boreholes,
condensers, compressors, and conveyor belts among other critical infrastructure
components.
It is hoped that within the next six months, CSC Bulawayo
abattoirs should be up and running before a similar exercise is rolled out to
the firm’s abattoirs and ranches dotted across the country in areas such as
Masvingo, Chinhoyi, Marondera, Harare, Gweru, Mutare and Kadoma.
Asked about recent media reports suggesting that Boustead
Beef was “a mere briefcase company with a £10 000 share capital and a cell
phone for its main contact number”, Mr Havercroft said:
“Boustead Beef UK (United Kingdom) is not the holding
company or the investing company.
“It (Boustead Beef UK) was set up to start the process of
raising finance and this has been five years in progress doing market research
and understanding the business.
“Boustead Beef UK was set up to import beef into the United
Kingdom and to raise finance.
“The holding company is not Boustead Beef UK and the
holding company has extremely strong partners, which have been to Zimbabwe . .
. and have met the Minister of Agriculture (Perrance Shiri) and are known to
other ministers.
“They are very strong (financial) investors and good
partners.
“Raising money for Zimbabwe is extremely difficult, I’m
sure you will understand this due to sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe and like I
said raising capital was a five-year process, it wasn’t done quickly”.
Mr Havercroft would not be drawn into revealing the name of
their investors citing professional reasons but this paper has it on good
authority that Boustead Beef Zimbabwe was being financed by various equity
investors from the United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong and
Australia.
“I can’t disclose the investors because I have to protect
my investors otherwise people will start phoning them and sending emails
requesting for money.
“And that’s what happens, I’ve been in business a long time
and my investors are my partners.
“They are my friends and I can’t expose them to what I was
exposed to last week in the Press here (locally); all the mudslinging and
rumours against what we are doing without people actually bothering to phone or
doing a research about the company,” he
said.
Mr Havercroft said it took 16 months to November last year
for Boustead Beef Zimbabwe to conclude negotiations for the transaction with
the Government.
It is hoped that the resuscitation of CSC will go a long way
in improving the economy through beef exports as it will unlock value in the
livestock industry.
At its peak, the beef processor and marketer used to handle
up to 150 000 tonnes of beef and associated by-products annually and exported
to the European Union, where it had an annual quota of 9 100 tonnes of beef.
The company used to earn the country about $45 million per
year. Chronicle
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