Kakira Sugar Works

Location

The main factories of the company are located in the town of Kakira, in Jinja District, Eastern Uganda. This location lies approximately 16 kilometres (9.9 mi), by road, northeast of Jinja, the nearest large town. Kakira is located approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi), by road, east of Kampala, the capital of Uganda and the largest city in that country. The coordinates of the main factory are:0°30'36.0"N, 33°17'24.0"E (Latitude:0.5100; Longitude:33.2900). In addition to the factories in Kakira, the company maintains a corporate office along 5th Street, in Bugoloobi, in Kampala Industrial Area, and offices and warehouses, in Kakira, Jinja and Kampala.

Overview

Kakira Sugar Works is the largest manufacturer of sugar in Uganda, producing an estimated 165,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually, accounting for about 47% of the national output in 2011.

Kinyara Sugar Works in Masindi District is Uganda's second-largest sugar manufacturer, accounting for about 31% of annual national output. Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL), in Buikwe District, accounts for about 17% of national production. The remaining 5% (about 15,000 metric tonnes annually), is produced by Sango Bay Estates Limited, in Sango Bay, Rakai District.(See Annual Production & Market Share Among Uganda's Sugar Manufacturers)

The sugar produced by the companies is marketed to the Eastern African countries of South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. Kakira Sugar Works is the flagship business of the Madhvani Group of Companies, the largest conglomerate in Uganda, accounting for over 10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Uganda in 2010. Kakira Sugar Works possesses its own social infrastructure : free schools for employees' children, roads, hospitals, staff housing...

History

In 1920, the Vithaldas Haridas & Company, under the management of Muljibhai Madhvani, a twenty-six-year-old Indian-born Ugandan businessman, entrepreneur, industrialist and philanthropist, purchased 800 acres (3.2 km²) of land, in Kakira, between Jinja and Iganga, for the purpose of starting a sugar factory. Muljibhai later became the Managing Director of Vithaldas Haridas & Company. That sugar complex, later renamed Kakira Sugar Works, opened in 1930. By adding to the original parcel of land, through purchases, the company land holdings at Kakira, were in excess of 9,500 hectares (37 sq mi), as of April 2009. The sugar manufacturing complex at Kakira employs over 7,500 people, according to the company website.

In 1987, Kakira Sugar Works went through a $59.38 million rehabilitation program funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. In 2000, the Madhvani group acquired 100% of Kakira Sugar Works' shares.

Ownership

Kakira Sugar Works is a (100%) subsidiary of the Madhvani Group, based in Kakira, Uganda. The Group's shareholding is private and is not widely, publicly known.

New developments

As of November 2013, Kakira Sugar Works Limited is in the middle a US$75 million (about UGX:191 billion) factory expansion and upgrade. US$30 million (about UGX:76.5 billion), will be raised through a 10-year corporate bond on the Uganda Securities Exchange, and the remainder will be sourced from local banks. When the upgrade is completed, the factory's sugarcane crushing capacity will be increased to 7,500 tonnes per day. The co-generation capacity of Kakira Power Station, will also increase from 22 Megawatts to 52 Megawatts.

Kakira Sugar Works announced in July 2014 that it would start the construction of an ethanol-producing plant by the end of 2016.