Brookside Dairy eyes 20pc stake in Ethiopian processor

By JACKSON OKOTH

Brookside Dairy, the largest Kenyan milk processing and marketing company, is looking into buying a 20 per cent shareholding in Elemtu Milk Integrated Industry (Elemtu Milk) of Ethiopia.

According to Addis Fortune, the largest English Weekly paper in Ethiopia, Brookside Dairy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 27, 2013, with Elemtu.

The two firms have already discussed how to develop the dairy plant, which is expected to begin operations in November 2013. Reliable sources confirm that the two companies are working on the final details before putting ink on paper.

Elemtu has leased a 20 ha plot of land from the Sululta Municipality, which will be used to set up the dairy plant, 25 km north of Addis Ababa.

A brief from Standard Investment Bank notes that the dairy plant will be set up on a 7 hectare piece of land acquired at a cost of $3.2million (Sh278b).

Elemtu will also use the land for other purposes including production of meat, eggs and other food products. Brookside Dairy has a processing capacity of 750,000 litres per day, collecting some 95 per cent of its milk from smallholder dairy farmers.

Rapid expansion

The entry of Brookside to Ethiopia comes at a time when it has been on a rapid expansion mode in the local dairy market. Notable is its takeover of Buzeki Dairies, giving it a dominant position in the market.

Brookside collects most of its milk from local farmers and processes it at the Ruiru plant from where it distributes through various agents and outlets throughout East Africa.

The company begun operations 15-years-ago by procuring and processing 5,000 litres of milk daily from nearby farms – this figure has risen steadily to a processing capacity of 750,000litres per day.

Brookside has since inception grown to become East Africa leading dairy and has full-fledged operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It has developed farmers’ network, milk collection and storage capacity in the region. Its market stretches as far as Egypt and the Middle East.