28 Jul 2016

Sechaba Holdings Limited managing director, Mr Johan de Kok, says last year within the April-December period, the company faced challenges of shortage of water and electricity load-shedding.

Presenting the company’s financial results, Mr de Kok said despite the challenging issues, Sechaba Holdings posted an overall of +8.5 per cent profit for the year.

He also said since the alcohol levy and beer regulations came into play, it had been a challenge business wise because the drastic impact had been felt.

He indicated that there was a time the business was at a standstill for four days because there was no water and it hit them hard.

Mr de Kok indicated that the beer business had been the most profitable of the portfolios while soft drinks had been giving him sleepless nights.

He noted that he had been in discussions with Botswana Unified Revenue Services and trade ministry regarding the alcohol levy and the new calculations.

“We have had good discussions and I am optimistic that we can reach a solution that works for both parties involved and I must say we might be concluding our talks by the end of this month,” he said.

He further said the business in the northern region had been positive due to the uninterrupted supply of water.

“I must say I am also confident in our Opaque performance, meaning Chibuku is showing signs of improvement and I think in three months it would have turned around,” he said.

Mr de Kok also said with regards to the beer portfolio, Black Label ,was responsible for 50 per cent of the beer contribution to the overall performance.

“Alcoholic fruit beverages also had a 95.7 per cent growth,” he said, adding that these include brands such as Redds and Core.

Speaking further on the alcohol levy introduced by government a couple of years back, Mr de Kok said what the new calculations are proposing is that any alcohol beverage that is 5 per cent and above alcohol content would be levied at 55 per cent. Ends