Juniper Glass has received all regulatory approvals necessary to conclude the final investment in its US$ 70m greenfield container glass factory in Debre Birhan, Ethiopia. Juniper is working with equipment suppliers, such as sm.project.ing and Clear Performance, to build the factory. It will have the capacity to produce around 60,000/tpa, around 200m glass bottles. Juniper has agreed with most major bottlers in Ethiopia to allocate the majority of the capacity to replace imports. The company has also evaluated opportunities with international customers to export bottles into neighbouring countries. The plant should be operational mid-2018. The consortium behind Juniper includes South Africa's Consol Glass, the largest glass packaging company in sub-Saharan Africa, with manufacturing facilities in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
