Bulawayo-based pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributor Datlabs has announced investment of more than US$2.2m in upgrading its factory and restoring its IV fluids plant to increase production with hopes to export its products throughout the Southern Africa region.
Datlabs has so far invested US$1m in the factory upgrade. Half of this sum has been used to put in a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and install new chillers. The other half has been used to purchase four state-of-the-art automated tablet press machines which are due to arrive soon from Durban. In the meantime, Datlabs has been refurbishing its tableting department.
$1.2m has been invested in the restoration of the IV fluids manufacturing plant, which has been non-operational for around fifteen years. Datlabs has been planning the project for five years but has been unable to do so until now for lack of funds. Another $1.8m is required to complete it and the government has pledged to help fund the restoration following an outbreak of cholera in Bulawayo in September.
Chief executive officer Todd Moyo said that Datlabs plan to start exporting most of its pharmaceutical products when the plant upgrades are complete. The company has been exporting its Camphacare product to Zambia since 2013, when South African Tiger Brands terminated a fifty-year manufacturing contract. Mr Moyo said “Camphacare has done extremely well” and following its success, Datlabs is looking forward to expanding its reach across the region and introducing a wide range of new products.
Datlabs Private Ltd was established in 1953 as Crowden Products Ltd and was incorporated in 1957 as DAT Laboratories. In 1977 it took on its current name. In 1981 the company became a subsidiary of Pharmalabs Jersey Ltd and commissioned a state of the art factory and a series of upgrades throughout the late 80s and early 90s before rationalising most of its 480 product lines and 586 employees in the late 90s. APD, its wholesale division, was formed in 2015 to increase distribution capacity of both Datlabs’ own products and other products sourced outside the company.
