Leading Packaging Manufacturer in East Africa Talks Recycling Trends in the Packaging Industry

Gavin Dehning, Group CEO at Silafrica, the leading manufacturer of sustainable rigid plastic packaging solutions in Kenya and East Africa, gives an overview of the company and talks recycling trends in the packaging industry.

“Silafrica has been around since 1957. It produces plastic products for most of the multinationals; Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and Heineken. We are in the rigid packaging space, which means that we are doing returnable crates, icon jars, Vaseline and margarine tubs. We are in a range of FMCG products that are consumed by consumers across the whole of East Africa. We have got a footprint that covers Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Kenya, with an intention of expanding into Mozambique and Zambia in the near future. Silafrica has a good relationship with most of the large multinationals in East Africa, and has enjoyed that relationship for many years now. That puts us in a very good space to be able to grow with the big guys. We are also able to innovate in quite a strong way in terms of getting new products to the market. We recently launched a foldable crate to enter into the agro space, which was originally pretty much carton-based. We have also added in a couple of other products, in particular the icon jars for Vaseline, which we are doing together with Unilever. We have a number of very good blue chip products that we have been able to secure and retain for a sustainable period of time, and that is where the strength of Silafrica lies”, says Gavin Dehning.

“Everybody is getting into the trend of ‘less is more’, recycling, trying to reduce product weights. We have been very instrumental in reducing the weights of many of our products to our customers, so that in the end, we are consuming less plastic for the same item. That is a trend that has been ongoing for many years now, and Silafrica has led the way. The next trend is to look at how to recycle and reuse existing products. That trend is underway at the moment, and it will only expand and grow from here. We are not currently in a situation where we have a perfect recycling record in East Africa, but there is an appetite by most of the East African regimes to be able to start looking at addressing this imbalance between recyclability and recycling of materials. Silafrica stands at the forefront of being able to support all the local regimes, particularly in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, where we are currently present, with a recycling program that is important for the plastic industry”, he adds.

ABOUT SILAFRICA: Silafrica has been the leading manufacturer and supplier of the most innovative and sustainable rigid plastic packaging solutions in Kenya and East Africa for beverage, food, personal and home care, and chemicals since 1957.

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