Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) recently announced that it has received approval to acquire Fairy Bottling Zambia Limited. Fairy Bottling produces Aqua Savana and Super Maheu (fermented maize beverage) as well as other soft drinks trademarks.

Under this agreement, CCBA has acquired the production facility in Lusaka and the sales and distribution infrastructure in Zambia. This comes after CCBA’s recent acquisition of Kalundu Beverages Limited, trading as Coca-Cola Beverages Zambia (CCBZ).

This new acquisition is expected to yield positive results. “We believe that the acquisition of Fairy Bottling allows us to achieve greater efficiencies which ultimately means better value for consumers and improved service to customers,” said Norton Kingwill, the managing director for CCBA’s Southern Africa region which includes Namibia, Botswana and Zambia.

He confirmed that “the operations of Fairy Bottling will continue as normal and all employees will remain with Fairy after transfer.”

CCBA bottles and distributes beverages whose trademarks are owned by The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) or TCCC’s affiliated entities, and is the world’s 8th largest Coca-Cola bottler by revenue. Including this most recent Zambian acquisition, CCBA now has over 16 000 employees across its operations in Africa with more than 30 bottling plants in 12 countries.

According to a statement issued by CCBZ Director of Communications, Herbert Nuwamanya, the creation of CCBA in 2016 was designed to advance a consolidated and more successful Coca-Cola system on the continent. CCBA also aims to create more shared opportunities for the business, the local economy and communities served across the value-chain, including local suppliers and retailers.