Bralirwa, Rwanda’s largest beer and soft drinks maker on Wednesday launched a Rwf23 billion production plant that will see it increase output.

The automation of the production process renders over 60 employees jobless at Bralirwa which also manufactures Coca-Cola products.

The brewer employs between 200 and 500 workers both directly and indirectly.

With the technological and capacity upgrade of the soft drinks production plant, Bralirwa will see its volume rise from 509,000 to 826,000 hectolitres per year.

The automated plant is replacing a manual production line which employed mostly casual workers in the factory.

Dr Pierre Damien Habumuremyi, Rwanda’s prime minister appealed with Bralirwa not to dismiss the affected staff but facilitate them to become entrepreneurs.

“Like Bralirwa has contributed to Rwanda’s economy, it should help in fighting unemployment by equipping their former staff with entrepreneur skills for their self-employment,” said Dr Habumuremyi.

Bralirwa has enjoyed relative monopoly for soft drinks with the campaign to import Pepsi products from Uganda failing to pick momentum.

However, with the planned construction of a multimillion plant in Rwanda by Crown Beverages Limited (CBL), the maker of Pepsi Cola products, Bralirwa’s monopoly will be broken.

CBL has acquired a five-acre piece of land at the Kigali Special Economic Zone (KSEZ) at Rwf12 million and construction of the plant is expected to start soon.  

Bralirwa, although still dominating the beer market, is facing stiff competition from local brewery Skol and imports from the East African Breweries Limited.

READ: Skol launches lager amid falling industry profits

However, with automated equipment, the brewer is aiming at cost cutting at a time when the industry is struggling with high cost of production.

“This investment will allow improvement in capacity to meet the growing demand and satisfy customers with high quality products,” said Jonathan Hall, Bralirwa’s managing director.

The new plant is coming at time when Bralirwa’s net profit for the year declined by 18.8 per cent due to low sales volume, limited price increases and cost of sales which were adversely affected by increased materials’ prices and the impact of adverse foreign exchange rates in 2013.

However, overall revenue grew by two per cent in 2013 resulting from favourable brand mix and strong revenue management. During the year price increases were limited to Mutzig, Amstel and Guinness brands.

Volumes also declined by 0.6 per cent due to reduced beer volume of 1.2 per cent. Soft drinks after a strong first half of the year slowed sharply in the second half to register a small annual increase of 0.9 per cent.