The growing demand for beer, carbonated soft drinks and other beverages in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to expand the subregion’s beverage manufacturing sector between 2012 and 2019, global growth consulting firm Frost & Sullivan says in a statement.

This will, in turn, lead to the construction of production plants in Nigeria, Angola and Mozambique, while the refurbishment of existing production facilities translate into new installation orders for automation and control solutions (ACS).

Frost & Sullivan’s report titled ‘Analysis of the Automation and Control Solutions Market within Sub-Saharan Africa's Beverages Industry’ has found that the market earned revenues of $23-million in 2012 and estimates that this will reach $32.2-million in 2019.

Meanwhile, industrial unit consulting manager James Fungai Maposa notes that the sub-Saharan Africa beverage sector is inundated with infrastructure and energy shortages, which impact on the operational expenditure of the subregion’s manufacturing sector. “Owing to this, production costs of bever-age plants in sub-Saharan Africa are higher than [those of] their Asian and European counterparts,” he explains.

Maposa adds that beverage manufacturers are making concerted efforts to improve operational efficiency to control costs, noting that ACS is a significant asset in these endeavours, as it allows manufacturers to closely monitor and control the production process.

Frost & Sullivan adds that ACS enables the optimum use of resources and cost savings through reduced operational expenses and lower labour costs. Further, it aids the delivery of real-time information to key decision-makers, helping them to make critical decisions in the shortest possible time with regard to supply and demand.

Despite these benefits, Maposa notes, the region’s ACS market faces a threat from lower-priced Asian imports. Market participants are also grappling with a shortage of technical and engineering skills at both the end-user and supplier levels. The region has traditionally been a slow adopter of new technologies, which further restricts market growth.

“Cost-conscious participants are likely to purchase the lower-priced Asian imports, which are reportedly of comparable quality to regionally supplied ACS systems,” he says, adding that, to avoid losing shares to foreign participants, regional suppliers should aim to offer ACS at affordable prices.

Another challenge restricting market growth by companies trying to establish production facilities in African countries is the language barrier. Manufacturers often experience com-munication difficulty in Portuguese-speaking African markets and often have to establish teams of Portuguese-speaking employees in those countries who, in turn, will have to educate end-users or consumers on the merits of installing and using ACS systems.