Beverages manufacturer, Delta Corporation said that it owes foreign suppliers US$41 million. This was revealed in November by Delta chief executive Pearson Gowero and finance director Matts Valela while announcing the Company’s financial results for the six months to September.
Delta also revealed that it owed dividends worth US$30 million to Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer that holds 40% of Delta.
The company said that its annual foreign currency needs range from US$60 million to US$100 million. Delta’s major imports include raw materials for beverage manufacture and packaging.
Delta chief executive Pearson Gowero said at the time:
We faced a number of constraints, mainly due to outages in imported raw materials because of limited access to hard currency. We also found that, because of the perception that our products are going for a discount relative to what is happening elsewhere in the economy, that drove consumption and put our facilities under pressure as we were not able to cope with the demand.
Delta has made headlines recently when it announced that starting on Friday, it will be selling its products in foreign currency. The government has since summoned the company officials and warned them that the move is illegal.