Kilombero A Winner at AB Sugar's Focus Awards

"THE Kilombero Distillery Project won the ‘Project Delivery’ Category when AB Sugar launched its prestigious group-wide “Focus Awards” scheme in August 2013"

IMAGE (Above): THE project team is pictured standing proudly in front of the distillery as they hold the award. From left are Patrick Keates, Ken Rowney, Mala Baparam, Wayne Dunbar, Veneshree Naidu, Willie Victor, George Palmer, Nigel Addyman, and (hidden at back) James van Greunen.

THE Kilombero Distillery Project won the ‘Project Delivery’ Category when AB Sugar launched its prestigious group-wide “Focus Awards” scheme in August 2013 to recognise and celebrate exceptional projects that have delivered significant business value.

Highlights of the project included exceptional co-operation between Illovo and AB Sugar project teams, on and off site, an intense focus on safety (zero major or lost time incidents), environmental standards and sustainability. In addition, despite considerable challenges the project was delivered on time and on budget, with full design production reached after only one week of commissioning. And a final accolade: the project demonstrated the ability to overcome complex cultural issues.

Kilombero’s MD Mark Bainbridge, commenting on the achievement, also pointed to the following: “Safety – 2.5 million man hours without incident during construction, commissioning and ongoing takeover; the quality of the build and engineering is very high as is the product; and the speed of commissioning on the back of an exacting build was very fast.”

He said that good recruitment, good preparation and training and committed staff had all contributed. “This is an asset we are proud of and want to see outperform on a regular basis. All the basic systems we are building for the distillery’s sustainable, safe and efficient operations continue to develop robustly. The ramp up in production capability continues to grow and we are now focusing on the weekly and monthly performances.” This award represents the ultimate success of the project. Congratulations to all who took part and contributed to making it a success.