GZ Industries and Golden Era Group announce joint venture

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Gayatri GZI's first project will be the construction of a large-scale beverage can plant in Joburg, which will commence operations in Q2 2016; combining GZI's operational excellence in beverage can manufacturing with Golden Era's strong supply chain and customer relationships.

The plant, which will serve customers in-country and across southern Africa, will manufacture two-piece aluminium beverage cans in multiple sizes and will feature world-class production technology and innovation capabilities aimed at meeting the evolving needs of beverage marketers in a fast growing market. Local South African workers will be employed and trained to operate the facility, which will boast an initial annual production capacity of 1.2-billion aluminium beverage cans.

Aggressive acquisition strategy

"GZI is committed to its strategy of becoming sub-Saharan Africa's largest packaging-solution provider to the beverage industry," said Motti Goldmintz, CEO of GZI. This partnership with Golden Era accelerates our access to new markets across southern Africa, and consolidates our ongoing expansion efforts in West and East Africa. Upon completion of the plant, GZI will have the capacity to manufacture in excess of 3.5 billion aluminium beverage cans every year. We have an aggressive acquisition strategy in sub-Saharan Africa and strongly believe that Golden Era is an ideal partner to help us achieve our pan-African vision."

Kishor Chhita, CEO of Golden Era, said: "Our collaboration with GZI enables us to grow our South African operations and offer a more comprehensive range of packaging solutions to our customers, whilst leveraging the skills and footprint of one of Africa's leading beverage can manufacturers. We are particularly excited about the highly skilled employment opportunities that this partnership will create, driving local development and skills transfer. This is truly a landmark opportunity, not only for southern Africa's beverage industry, but also to exploit our synergies in the rest of Africa."

GZI's West and East African footprint, combined with Golden Era's southern African presence, will ensure that both parties are well positioned to service all sub-Saharan customers with their packaging requirements. Both parties have invested successfully in sub-Saharan Africa over the last few years and have a strong track record of customer support based on manufacturing capability, product range, print quality and service.