By Andrew Irumba
Ntinda: Britania Allied Industries Ltd, the manufacturers of the house hold natural fruit juice,Splash has imported anew machine-Homogenizer that will help a long way in further breaking down into smaller particles (viscosity) our local Splash content made from mangoes, passion fruits, pineapples and Apples among others that are seasonally collected from local farmers. This was revealed by Splash’s general manager for production Mr.Ajith Prasad in an exclusive interview with our reporter on Monday. Although Mr.Prasad declined to reveal the actual price of the new machine, another source within the company on condition of anonymity confirmed, the newly acquired High Tech.Automated machine cost the company a whooping $100,000 (Approx.Shs 38,000,000/=).
Follow our blow-by-blow interview…
TheSpy: So Mr.Ajith, briefly tell us about this machine, what is it and what’s its purpose?
Ajith: Ok, Mr.Andrew this is called a Homogenizer machine, its main purpose is to thoroughly mix liquids [immensely], mark the word ’immensely’. Different liquids have different viscosity, to mix them intimately (again, mark the word ‘intimately’ because I use them with a purpose!), you need a Homogenizer machine purposely designed to crash into even more smaller,infact, invisible particles. In short, it enhances the quality of the product in terms of smoothness in the mouth, taste and looks.
TheSpy: Are you saying therefore, that you’ve not been mixing your liquids ‘intimately’? Mark my word too-‘intimately’!
Ajith: No,not exactly, we have been using stirrer machines for mixing, this is old technology, with this new technology, you expect better results, and in a timely manner. You know that world over technology only evolves to improve, not the reverse, so this improvement.
TheSpy: How much have you bought this Machine?
Ajith: My friend, ask the Director Finance Mr.Mohammed,he is your friend. I’m in production!
Thespy: Does the shopping of this new machine mean you are going to increase on your production capacity per se it’s serving a different purpose?
Ajith: This machine’s purpose is not to increase on production capacity but quality enhancement. As you are well aware, Britania buys supports local farmers through buying their local mangoes, passion fruits, pineapples etc. By the way, we even supply to them those seedlings and send again send them our well paid Agronomists to train them on better farming practices, but that’s for another day, let’s get back to the point. So each of these local breeds have different viscosity,yet Britania must mix all those together and produce on taste, if it’s mangoe Splash for instance,one must not tell through the type of mango juice he/she is taking! So that’s part of our task and this machine’s task too.
Homogenizer machine will help us to improve much better the local pulp (squeezed juice kept in cold rooms awaiting further processing and packaging) in taste, appearance and mouth feel (smoothness in the mouth when taking).
TheSpy: Further explain how this transforms a local farmer and how they benefit.
Ajith: Ooh! You’ve heard Government promoting BUBU (Buy Uganda,Build Uganda). We now get minimum 30% of our Splash Mango pulp from local farmers through their cluster groups which we helped them create. We use 100% local pulp on passion, Pineapple and Cocktail, tell me any other local fresh juice producer at large scale doing that. Most juices on our local market are imported.  We even supply farmers with free seedlings and free Agronomy services. We have touched and changed the lives of our people, because they are now part of our production cycle, my friend…..
TheSpy: Any other information you may want to lay for the public to know before we close the interview?
Ajith:  Britania is the pioneer in fruit processing in East Africa, in case you have forgotten. We are now embarking on equipping our processing industry with more up to date highly Automated tech.to answer the ever increasing demand for our products across the region, just note that we’re the first again to shop such machinery, why? Because we want to serve our customers better every time we get an opportunity, I thank you Mr. Andrew for your time.
Britania produces approx.seven hundred and fifty thousand (750000) liters or Seven hundred and fifty(750) tones of Splash per month in 1litre, 250ml and 150mls. They include Mango, Apple, Pineapple, Passion, Orange,Tropical Fruit Punch, Fruit Cocktail,Pina-Colada and Simply-Hibi splash. You can access any of these products and others in any shop store or super market near you across the country and region.
