Recent events in Mozambique have taken some of the fizz out of Coca-Cola Sabco’s biggest-ever US$130m greenfield investment across its seven-country regional market in Africa — a “world-class bottling facility” in Matola Gare, near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.The launch of the plant in June was a milestone in the company’s ongoing investment in manufacturing capabilities in Africa. It is one of three Coke plants in the country of 27m people, built over three years.But despite Coca-Cola Sabco having previously run out of bottling capacity in Mozambique, the new facility has installed only two of three bottling lines – for both glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles — in various sizes and drinks categories. These include sparkling water, juices and energy drinks.There are various reasons for the restraint.First, there has been an economic slowdown in the country caused by faltering global oil and gas markets.Second, there has been resurgent conflict between Frelimo, the g...
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