Githunguri Dairy, manufacturers of the Fresha brand of products, is expanding its foothold within the East African Community (EAC) by growing its presence in Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda.
The milk processor said it has been consolidating its presence in Kenya and was now ready to expand to neighbouring countries. Speaking in Mombasa, Githunguri Dairy Co-operative Society Chairman Charles Mukora, said that buoyed by their growing presence in major towns outside Nairobi, they are confident of a complete roll over to cover the entire EAC region.
“We are firmly perched at position two in market share according to the Kenya Dairy Board report and for us growth to other areas which require quality dairy products is our line of duty,’’ Mr Mukora said in an interview. He said the acquisition will be financed through a mix of modalities including ploughing back the company’s profits. He added that the co-operative is also evaluating other financing mechanisms that will be made public in the coming months.
A recent Kenya Dairy Board report shows that Githunguri Dairy is the second-largest milk processor by market share in the country after Brookside Dairy as of June this year. The co-perative has a 16 per cent share, Brookside 38 per cent while New KCC has a 15 per cent market share.
Mukora said after leading officials from Githunguri Dairy at a corporate social responsibility (CSR) venture at the Bamburi Calvary Zion Children’s Home where they donated an assortment of foodstuffs including milk products, mosquito nets and reading and writing materials. “Githunguri Dairy, being a farmer’s owned co-operative society, holds close to its heart activities that are geared towards empowerment of communities across the country,’’ Mukora said at the Children’s Home.
Mukora said on a daily basis, they sell an average of 250,000 litres of milk. To service the Kenyan market and the regional one, the society will now start buying milk from co-operatives that do not have the capacity to process their own milk.
The co-operative has it own milk processing plant with the capacity to process 300,000 litres of milk per day. ‘’We were sanctioned during our last annual general meeting to explore possibilities of buying from co-operatives that do not actually process,’’ he said.
Mukora announced that the organisation paid Sh170 million as total bonus to its farming members and will be giving dividends toward the end of November, 2015.
