Go Beer Breweries plans to reopen stalls

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Gweru City Council-owned beer concern, Go-Beer Breweries, says it plans to engage a strategic partner to revive its business, which closed last year after accumulating a huge debt.

Gweru City Council-owned beer concern, Go-Beer Breweries, says it plans to engage a strategic partner to revive its business, which closed last year after accumulating a huge debt.

BY STEPHEN CHADENGA

Go Beer is reeling under a $2,6 million debt, owing to operational challenges.

Council shut down the brewery last July after it emerged that the beer concern, saddled with a $2,6 million debt, had become a financial burden to the local authority.

(File Photo): Gweru Town House

The municipality announced last month that it was courting strategic partners to inject fresh capital into the project.

However, some council sources said several potential investors had expressed concern over the viability of the business.

“It has been a mammoth task convincing potential investors that the beer entity can be successfully revived,” a council source told Southern Eye yesterday.

“There is a huge debt owed by Go Beer and the competition in the beer industry has not made things easy to attract investors.”

Acting Go Beer general manager, Alfred Fundira was not available for comment, but early this year officials at council revealed that the equipment at the brewery was obsolete.

“Go Beer has a huges debt amounting to $2,6 million, with the state of equipment and machinery at the brewery being obsolete and dilapidated,” deputy finance director, Onwell Masimba told a special council meeting early this year. “If we are to revive the beer concern, there is need for an open strategic partnership with potential investors, who should be furnished with the correct information on the state of affairs at the brewery.”

In recent years the municipality took over the company’s debts and absorbed staff deploying them in various departments after they went for years without being paid.