Zimbabwe’s beverage industry is entering a new growth phase, with major producers, Delta Beverages and Varun Beverages, outlining robust expansion plans during a high-level plant tour led by Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu.
Minister Ndlovu said the sector’s rapid scaling reflects rising consumer confidence, higher disposable incomes and renewed investor appetite under the Second Republic.
The tour, covering Delta’s Harare brewery and Varun’s fast-growing manufacturing hub, highlighted record demand, increasing tax contributions and new capital projects that position the industry as one of Zimbabwe’s fastest-expanding value chains.
Minister Ndlovu said the transformation of the beverages market over the past six to seven years has been remarkable, driven by a significant rise in consumption and unprecedented investment by manufacturers.
“We toured our two big beverages companies, Varun and Delta, because this is a very important sector in our economy, employing high numbers of our people and producing products that reach every corner of the country,” he said.
The minister noted that consumption has grown almost fivefold under the Second Republic, a trend that has forced producers to continuously add new capacity to keep up with rising demand. Delta’s additions include a new packaging line designed to ease supply pressures in its lager and soft drinks business.
“Talking to Delta senior management, the last three to four years – every year has been record breaking in terms of demand and also output, and 2025 has hit the ceiling once again,” he said. “We look forward to 2026, which we think will also be a good year.”
The minister attributed the strong demand to improving household incomes across key sectors of the economy.
“This attests to a growing economy, where you have ordinary farmers having more disposable incomes, miners having more disposable incomes, and these are feeding into the greater part of the economy,” he said. The same trajectory is visible at Varun, which he said is also highly optimistic about 2026.
Delta Beverages executive director for finance, Mr Alex Makamure, told The Herald Business and Finance that the company’s financial obligations to the fiscus continue to rise in line with volumes. He said the beer and soft-drink units remain major contributors to national revenue through excise duty, VAT and the sugar tax.
“At the last tracking of these numbers we were talking about US$15 million to US$20 million per month equivalent, including the sugar tax,” Mr Makamure said. “These allow government to run their operations, and we believe we can only contribute and do better with the support that we are seeing from government.”
He said the stabilising macroeconomic environment has made planning easier and enabled the company to commit to additional investment.
“Issues around the exchange rate and lower inflation allow us to plan for the future,” he said.
Delta expects its output to rise further next year, although demand in some lines is already outpacing production.
“We are seeing our sectors growing in the last few years to the extent that we might disappoint a few of our customers with limited supplies,” Mr Makamure said. “We need to invest a lot more to make sure that we cover the gaps in the market.”
He added that Delta is confident of the future and wants policy consistency maintained.
“We believe that if government policies do not disturb us, we will do better. We wish to see a lot more coming out of our investments next year in Bulawayo and here to make sure that we supply the market. – Herald
