Tanzania: TBL Mbeya Celebrates Decade of Enviable Progress

TEN years ago, the Tanzania Breweries Limited (TBL), inaugurated a new plant at Iyunga area in Mbeya City as part of ...

its investment strategy in establishing projects in various sectors of the economy.

TBL's Managing Director, Philip Redman said over the weekend that the plant has brought positive impact in Mbeya Region and Tanzania as a whole in the growth of socioeconomic activities as far as payment of taxes is concerned.

"The achievements gained through investment in this factory prove that it is possible for Tanzania to realize its industrialization agenda," he said.

The Mbeya TBL plant, under the parent company, ABInBEV, has a modern brewery equipped with world class standard technologies.

It started production with 100 Tanzanian employees, many of them being young, motivated, dedicated and talented individual's university graduates in various disciplines who were trained on beer production.

Currently, the Mbeya TBL has offered direct and indirect employment to more than 1,000 people through its business network.

Current TBL's Mbeya Plant Manager, Godwin Fabian, said the achievements gained during the past 10 years are an incentive to the workforce because without cooperation between the workers and the management these achievements would have remained a dream.

"I am so proud and honoured to be part of this excellent team. We all believe in winning as a team, and together we have been able to achieve that. All these came through because of the efforts from previous plant managers who laid good foundation for us to enjoy and celebrate today," he said.

The first plant Manager at TBL Mbeya, Calvin Martin, who is currently the Manager of the Dar es Salaam TBL plant, said from the time the plant opened its doors the team started implementing the SABMiller's Manufacturing Way.

This tested approach has earned SABMiller and its subsidiaries good reputation for producing high quality products. Now the plant is implementing ABInBEV's Voyager Plant Optimisation (VPO).

"The Mbeya TBL has up-to-date machinery for production in all departments.

I am happy that all the young Tanzanian workers, whom we worked together, were quick in learning the use of the modern production tools, leading to increased beer production and marketing," Martin said.

Apart from adhering to good production systems, the Mbeya factory also took the duty of environmental conservation and protection of water sources and engagement in community activities more seriously in Mbeya Region as part of its social responsibility commitment.

According to Martin, TBL Mbeya scored notable successes, including winning the best beer factory award in Africa among other plants under the SABMiller.

The factory won such award in three successive years of 2010, 2011 and 2012. TBL's Technical Director, Waziri Jemedari, who also served as Manager of TBL Mbeya, says the factory's achievements include winning several awards for producing high quality beer and the use of up-to the-minute production systems.