Pioneer seeks big KZN market with new bakery

© Sasajo - Fotolia.com

Pioneer Foods outperformed competitor Tiger Brands in the year to September, although both performances pointed to a South African consumer under pressure, which has made volume growth difficult to achieve.

The "green" facility has the capacity to produce more than 200,000 loaves a day from multiple lines, and provides more than 200 long-term jobs for local communities. Sasko Bakeries executive Riaan Heyl said with the Shakaskraal bakery coming on stream, "we are adding critical growth capacity to the important KwaZulu-Natal and coastal markets".

Pioneer Foods said the "green technologies and eco-friendly processes" used at the bakery would allow Sasko to further reduce its environmental impact.

The bakery includes translucent sheets in the roof to reduce electrical lighting needs. The facility harvests rain water for truck washing and for irrigation. It employs renewable resource-fired boilers, reflective white roof sheets to reduce the need for internal cooling, and heat recovery on refrigeration equipment for the pre-heating of water.

In the year to September, Pioneer Foods achieved a 12% rise in adjusted headline earnings per share to 456c, while Tiger Brands saw a 3.8% contraction in its headline earnings per share to 1,624c.

Source: Business Day