Sidel strengthens its presence in South Africa

The Sidel Group has created a subsidiary in South Africa to better serve its customers from the Southern part of the African continent.

"Sidel has been present for 30 years in South Africa, through our agent. Now is the time to go further. Establishing our own local company is a first step," says Mart Tiismann, president and CEO, "in strengthening our local presence for greater responsiveness and stronger support to our local customers."

"We also plan to bring additional resources onboard soon in order to offer more service capabilities and competences."

The Johannesburg-based company is, since June, the home base to support all countries in Southern Africa, including Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.

Today, Sidel has a large installed base of more than 400 pieces of equipment in Southern Africa.

This is a growing market in all types of beverage businesses, where the company is mainly involved in carbonated soft drinks (CSD), beer, and converters.

According to Euromonitor, 3.5 billion liters of beer and four billion liters of CSD were consumed in South Africa in 2009.

The forecasts for 2010 to 2014 are positive: the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for beer is forecasted to be 5.4%, while for carbonated beverages it is expected to be 1.6%.