Company officials told reporters that the factory started production of Coca-Cola with a 24-hour shift, and started distributing the product on 28 March 2009 following a loan from the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia of $1.8m, which the company requested before its closure.
According to these officials, another batch of crown corks will be imported from India in the next couple of weeks. The company has also made some price adjustments to its products, though it wasn’t willing to disclose the details.
EABSC used to import crown corks from India. However, the company had to change its client to the 45-year-old sole local manufacturer, Ethiopian Crown Cork and Can Manufacturing Industry, several months ago after the nation was hit by a severe shortage of foreign currency.
With 1,000 employees and two factories in Ethiopia, EABSC was shut down after it found it impossible to continue operating when the local supplier couldn’t keep up with the demand.
EABSC is a subsidiary of Coca-Cola Sabco, which operates 25 bottling plants in South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Cambodia, with more than 450,000 active outlets and 159,300 coolers.
Source: Addis Fortune
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