One of the first export-oriented investors to plant roots in the Coega Special Economic Zone is once more expanding its operations in the SEZ.
The Coega Development Corporation said on Thursday that the Port Elizabeth Cold Storage plant is spending a further R10m on its second expansion within a space of two years, following the initial R100m investment by the company in 2017.
The current project, set for completion this month, will see the company play a critical role in the refrigeration and short-term storage of citrus products before distribution to markets around the world. The new building will comprise of a new workshop, facilitate the servicing of forklifts and vehicles of the company.
“We doubled our capacity of 7,500 pallets to around 15,000 pallets storage. The expansion complemented our state of the art modern storage facility and accommodated greater volumes for the increasing citrus production in the Eastern Cape,” says George Efstratiou, PE Cold Storages’ co-director.
He said the Coega SEZ has been the ideal investment destination for the company, adding that he would “definitely encourage more investors to come and invest at Coega due to the clean and secure environment as well as the good services and facilities provided and being situated near the Port of Ngqura.”
The CDC said that these sentiments support the recent independent study conducted on the impact of the Coega in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and Eastern Cape.
“For example, over 80% of the companies that have invested in the Coega SEZ have seen an increase in their profits since starting operations in the zone, these include Coega Dairy and PE Cold Storage, among others with the benefits felt throughout the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and the rest of the province, according to an independent research conducted by Muffin Consulting,” CDC said.
“In addition, eighty-five percent (85%) of investors have increased their workforce, sixty-two percent (62%) have expanded their factories, more than ninety percent (90%) described the Coega SEZ and its Logistics Park in Uitenhage as the ideal location for small and big industries, private sector investment accounts for approximately seventy percent (70%) of the total investment value at Coega, over seventy-eight percent (78%) of suppliers to investors are local”.
