South Sudan Beverages Limited is scaling back its operations and warning of a possible shutdown if access to foreign currency and diesel does not improve soon. This means that the company will produce fewer beverages at its factory in Juba and potentially also employ fewer people.

SSBL is a subsidiary of international beverages company SABMiller. The company produces beer, soft drinks and spirits.

Managing Director Carlos Gomes said at a press conference on Saturday, “Currently we are finding it difficult to continue with our operations... we depend on imported raw materials simply because the kind of raw materials that we need for our operation are not available in country.”

“Now the current financial situation that the country finds itself in as regards to hard currencies – to forex – has put us in a very delicate predicament.”

Gomes explained, “First of all there is the issue of raw materials that we are struggling to get. Our suppliers have been very good, they have supported us over many, many years, but our credit terms with them are at the limit and in some cases beyond the limit. And there is no appetite from them as foreign suppliers to continue to take further risks in extending credit to us simply because they are nervous about the possibilty of us being able to pay us in forex.”

“More criticial however is the situation of diesel. Our operations depend 100% on diesel-generated power... our diesel supplier [now] finds itself that our credit terms have been more than exceeded... And we cannot locally source enough diesel to keep our operations running to the level that we need.”

He said the company could not run currently its factory at full capacity owing to the shortages of forex and diesel.

Gomes pointed out that the company was now forced to send some of its personnel on leave. “We will send them on leave but there comes a time that if this issue is resolved issue that the leave will run out and then we may have to make some very difficult decisions that we really don't want to do.”

Whilst SSBL employs only 400 people directly, the total number of their dependents besides those of their distributors is easily in the thousands if not tens of thousands, Gomes pointed out. “It would be a very sad day if we couldn't keep them employed,” he said.

The company manager also warned that the potential shutdown of the company would reflect negatively on South Sudan to foreign investors. “From a social responsibility point of view in the country that we are in, as a major international player we would not want to fail because that would send internationally a very negative message that wouldn't be good for the future development of South Sudan.”

He said that the company would continue to interact with various levels of government. “We need support in getting access to forex so we can continue operations,” he said.

See also: 

Nilepet boss secretly diverting funds to friends and political allies (30 July)

Son of central bank governor involved in currency trading in Juba (7 July)