Nigerian Can Maker Moves Into South Africa With $71m Plant

GZ Industries Ltd., a Nigerian beverage-can producer, said it will build a 1 billion rand ($71 million) South African plant in partnership with a local company to increase expansion on the continent.

The joint venture, with packaging maker Golden Era Group, known as Gayatri GZI Beverage Cans, will build a factory in Johannesburg with annual capacity of 1.2 billion cans, GZI announced on Tuesday.

The plant will start operations in the second quarter of next year and supply other southern African countries, it said.

“This partnership with Golden Era accelerates our access to new markets across southern Africa, and consolidates our ongoing expansion efforts,” GZI Chief Executive officer Motti Goldmintz said in the statement. “Upon completion of the plant, GZI will have the capacity to manufacture in excess of 3.5 billion aluminum beverage cans every year.”

Canmakers are investing to take advantage of rising demand for bottled drinks in Africa, where many consumers are switching from subsistence existences and buying packaged goods for the first time. Gayatri will compete with Johannesburg-based Nampak Ltd., the continent’s largest maker of beverage cans, which is also expanding with new plants in Nigeria and Ethiopia.

GZI is owned by a group of four individual investors, Standard Chartered Private Equity, Verod Capital Management and Ashmore Private Equity.

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