Silafrica Tanzania: Leading East Africa’s Packaging Industry

Silafrica Tanzania, part of East Africa’s leading packaging group, has built a reputation as the trusted packaging partner for multinationals in Africa, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Heineken, AB InBev, Diageo’s Serengeti Breweries, Unilever, and TotalEnergies. With operations in Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Mozambique, and exports to more than 15 countries across Africa and Asia, Silafrica is a true regional powerhouse in rigid packaging solutions.

Its product portfolio ranges from plastic bottles, crates, closures, jerry cans, and industrial buckets to consumer packaging such as Blue Band tubs, yoghurt cups, and medicine containers. The company also leads in trade consumer products with its Simtank water storage solution and is the only licensed manufacturer of affordable toilet slabs in Tanzania, boosting sanitation access.

Guided by a strong commitment to sustainability and the circular economy in packaging, Silafrica drives plastic recycling in Tanzania through PETPRO and promotes bottle-to-bottle recycling. With a people-first culture and the 20 Keys Program inspired by Toyota, Silafrica combines innovation, sustainability, and ethical practices to remain the lion of East Africa’s packaging industry.

In this interview with Alpesh Patel, Country CEO of Silafrica Tanzania, the company highlights its position as a leading packaging company in East Africa with more than six decades of experience.

Let’s talk about Silafrica’s E2P strategy and regional positioning. Can you give us an idea of the countries in which you operate, along with the vision, mission, and core values?

As Silafrica Tanzania, we celebrate over six decades of operation. In 1965, we started the factory in Tanzania. The company stands as a beacon of innovation, ethical business practices, and sustainability in East Africa. That is our main unique selling proposition.

Silafrica has grown into a regional powerhouse with a footprint across several countries. We have manufacturing bases in four countries: Tanzania (since 1965), Kenya (since 1979), Ethiopia (since 2014), and Mozambique (since 2024). These are the countries where we have full-fledged operational facilities.

We also export to more than 15 countries, primarily from Tanzania, and to a lesser extent from Kenya. From Tanzania, we export to Rwanda, Burundi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Somaliland, as well as Nepal and Sri Lanka. We are proud of the volume and reach of our exports from Tanzania.

Silafrica operates under three strategic pillars: performance leadership, technology leadership, and circular economy. Our focus is on providing rigid packaging solutions for both consumer and industrial sectors. Our product portfolio includes bottles, crates, closures, jerry cans for lubricant oil companies, and pails, specifically 4-litre, 10-litre, and 20-litre buckets for the paint and edible oil industries. We serve primarily B2B clients with these packaging solutions. We do not just manufacture packaging; we create value.

Our mission is to deliver sustainable, innovative, and high-performance packaging solutions that support our customers’ growth while protecting the environment.

Our vision is to be the lion of the plastic packaging industry. This vision is supported by three mission pillars: building a best-in-class company, becoming a market profit leader, and reaching customers across Africa.

The foundation of our business is built on strong core values: doing the right thing even when no one is watching, keeping it clean, being authentic, being open and honest, and striving to be world-class together. These values define our organisational culture.

Whenever we recruit employees at Silafrica, we ensure proper induction. All mission, vision, and core values are translated into the local language to help team members internalise them. That is where Silafrica stands out.

To summarise, Silafrica is a leading manufacturer of rigid packaging and water storage solutions in East Africa. Approximately 20% to 25%of our overall revenue comes from the trade sector, specifically water tanks. We maintain a strong focus on sustainability, innovation, and ethical practices, serving both multinational corporations and local businesses across the region.

What are the B2B strategy and regional positioning?

Silafrica is a preferred packaging partner for many multinationals and large companies, including Coca-Cola. We work with several bottlers, such as Nyanza Bottling and Bonite Bottlers. We are also closely associated with Pepsi, as well as Heineken and AB InBev, which operates Tanzania Breweries. We also serve Serengeti Breweries, a Diageo company, along with Unilever and TotalEnergies, where we provide re-weld packaging. Other clients include EnGen, Kansai Plascon, Berger Paints, Goldstar, Mogas, and many others already in our portfolio.

We also manufacture specialised packaging for perishable exports, such as grapes and avocados. Previously, these were exported using corrugated boxes, but we have introduced a one-way recyclable plastic solution, which extends shelf life and meets international export standards. This is one of our key innovations in the sector.

Silafrica holds the Coca-Cola Green Rating for ethical practices and is recognised as an authorised supplier for multinational corporations such as AB InBev, Diageo, PepsiCo, and TotalEnergies. We are active in the FMCG space, serving beverages, water, juice, margarine, cooking fats, and other related industries.

On the industrial side, we support the paint, re-welding, and edible oil industries. Many of these major brands are long-term clients and have demonstrated strong loyalty to our company. While multinational corporations generally maintain multiple supplier arrangements to mitigate risk, in Tanzania, we have established ourselves as the sole packaging supplier for several key customers due to our ethical business practices and high standard of quality products.

Despite typical supplier diversification policies, the majority of these customers have awarded Silafrica the majority of their packaging volume. We consistently meet their expectations and deliver high-quality, reliable solutions.

What are the packaging solutions that Silafrica offers? I understand you serve both B2C and B2B segments. What are the main or unique selling propositions of Silafrica?

At Silafrica, we operate through two main channels: corporate and trade.

In the corporate segment, we offer rigid consumer packaging. These include thin-wall containers, jerry cans, medicine containers, preforms, closures, Blue Band tubs, and yoghurt cups. These are all part of our rigid consumer product line.

We also manufacture rigid industrial products, including a wide range of crates used in the beverage, brewery, and agriculture sectors. Additionally, we produce pallets within the rigid industrial category.

We have a smaller segment dedicated to flexible packaging, which is operated from our facility in Kenya.

In Tanzania, we are particularly strong in the trade consumer channel. One of our most prominent brands is Simtank, a water storage solution that is very well known and widely trusted in the market. Alongside this, we produce toilet slabs—affordable and innovative sanitation products designed to help eliminate open defecation in Tanzania and neighbouring countries.

We are proud to be the only company licensed to manufacture these toilet slabs. This is part of our collaboration with the LIXIL Group, from whom we receive the product designs. Silafrica manufactures these slabs as part of that partnership.

Let us look at your sustainability: environmental sustainability, social impact, and actions as well. How do you mitigate risk? How do you go about all that?

Silafrica is at the forefront of the global shift from the linear economy to a circular economy. In a linear economy, products are used and discarded. We are transitioning from the linear economy to the circular economy, where materials are reused, recycled, and reintegrated into the production cycle. That is the recycling economy, a shift from use-and-dispose to recycle and reuse. However, now we are focusing more on the circular economy in the context of packaging.

The products we manufacture, such as crates, closures, preforms, and tanks, are supplied, used by consumers, and then recycled to produce the same type of plastic products again. The waste itself becomes raw material. That is where Silafrica is committed.

We are working closely with all our suppliers and customers to create a proper strategy to ensure that the waste becomes raw material. That is the way forward. You can see it already happening in Europe and other regions.

We are ready to move from the old industrial notion and implement the necessary steps to become a circular economy company. This is working very well across all the countries we operate in: Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Mozambique.

What is your role, and how are you empowering the recycling ecosystem?

I currently serve as the Chairman of PETPRO in Tanzania. PETPRO is an industry-managed Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) that operates under a voluntary Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) model. Our mission is to represent the Tanzanian PET plastic industry by collectively driving efforts to self-regulate post-consumer PET recycling.

What makes PETPRO unique is that it’s built on a simple yet powerful principle: the industry should drive and finance environmental solutions for PET waste. Everyone in the value chain has a role, right from raw material producers, converters, brand owners, and retailers, to consumers and recyclers. Each party is crucial to the solution.

At PETPRO, we receive grants and support from brand owners and retailers to fund PET recycling efforts. This ensures there’s an ongoing monetary value for post-consumer PET, which incentivises recycling. After all, we producers are the ones introducing PET bottles, crates, and other plastic packaging into the environment, so it’s our responsibility to help manage their end-of-life impact.

Every bottle and crate has a shelf life. After that, what happens? That’s where organised collection and recycling come in. We work to encourage and empower recyclers and collectors to operate efficiently. Many recyclers in Tanzania are already doing remarkable work—engaging in bottle-to-bottle recycling and converting PET waste into high-value materials like nylon and PET strapping.

This system is becoming well-established in Tanzania. But there’s still more to do. We aim to balance the ratio between what we import and what we can generate through domestic recycling. The goal is to reduce imports and increase the reuse of what’s already circulating in the country.

We also work hand-in-hand with Tier 1 companies, especially in the beverage industry, as well as with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Environment. Their support is key to ensuring our EPR initiatives are sustainable and impactful.

So far, over more than 100,000tons plus of PET bottles are manufactured annually in Tanzania. That volume needs to be collected and recycled properly. It’s also worth noting that many women are actively involved in the collection process, which contributes not only to environmental protection but also to local livelihoods and the Tanzanian GDP.

I urge not just the large, Tier 1 companies, but also Tier 2 and Tier 3 businesses—like smaller water bottling companies to come forward and join the movement. Right now, PETPRO has about eight members, but we are keen to grow. The more we unite, the greater our impact.

Silafrica seems to have a people-first culture. How does that fit into your long-term vision?

Yes, so definitely, I believe in retaining people. At Silafrica, our achievements are rooted in our people. We’ve built a company culture focused on ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.

We’re improving our induction process because we want every employee we select to feel happy coming to work. They shouldn’t say, “I’m just going to work for Silafrica.” They should say, “I’m going to add value to Silafrica.” That’s the mindset we want to build—and we’re already making progress.

In every organisation, you’ll find A-players, B-players, and C-players.

• An A-player works with full ownership and initiative.
• A B-player shows some ownership but not at the A-level.
• And a C-player is usually just watching the clock, not reporting properly, and lacks commitment.

We’re part of the Silafrica Way, and one of the key things we’ve invested in is the 20 Keys Program, a Japanese system pioneered by companies like Toyota. We’ve been on this journey for nine years now. It’s taught us how to recognise and manage the A, B, and C players in a way that supports growth and performance.

Of course, we love having A-players, especially in senior management and across our teams. But it’s not realistic to have A-players everywhere. Sometimes we’ll end up with B-players or even C-players. That’s why it’s so important to have the right selection criteria.

You can train and develop a B-player into an A-player. That’s possible. But a C-player will never become an A-player. So we work hard on hiring right from the beginning.

At the end of the day, I believe a dream doesn’t become reality through magic. It takes sweat, determination, and hard work.