Costain Chilala, chairman of Kapiri Glass Manufacturing (KGM) Limited, has announced that the company will soon start the procurement process for equipment and machinery to revive the defunct plant in Central Province. KGM recently signed a K40 billion ($8m) loan agreement with the PTA Bank to revive the plant, which is expected to create over 400 new jobs. Chilala said that the company has not done much yet but will soon start the procurement process. "We are proceeding very well with reviving of the plant, in the next few weeks we are going to start the procurement process," he said. The demand for glass has increased since the closure of the factory, resulting in the need to import these products. The total cost of the project is US$ 22M, with $13.6M being working capital required to revamp operations at the plant. US$ 8M was sourced from the PTA Bank, another US$ 2M from the Development Bank of Zambia while the remainder will be funded by Chimsoro Group Companies, which is owned by the Chilala family. The factory is expected to resume full production in about 14 months, with initial production capacity of 75/tpd, increasing to 100/tpd. KGM has partnered with more than five equipment suppliers from Switzerland, Italy and Germany specializing in glassmaking equipment. The project will also create environmentally friendly packaging materials that will meet the needs of multinational companies, incincluding Coca-Cola, SABMiller and Zambian firms such as Freshpikt, Rivonia, honey producers and pharmaceutical companies.
